A League of his own
by Angry lil' elf
Summary: Master Chief and Cortana end up in the Justice League universe and join the League. Rated M for violence, swearing and lemons.
1. Chapter 1

Justice League: A League of his own

Angry lil' elf: Hey everyone, this is a new fic that I'm writing, no planned pairings for Master Chief yet, if you go on my profile I have set up a poll showing potential romantic partners; they are: Black Canary, Huntress, Zatanna, Vixen, Fire, Ice, Dr. Light, Crimson Fox, Veronica Vreeland, Catwoman and Lois Lane. I included Veronica Vreeland, Lois Lane and Catwoman as a bit of a joke. I'm not including Wonder Woman or Supergirl because Freedom Guard has got them as potential partners for one thing but also because I'm a BM/WW fan because Wondy belongs to Bats and Supergirl is kinda too young for Chief so… yeah that's about it… umm… nice weather we're having? I'm kinda leaning towards MC/BC (Because I loathe GA, the guy is a womanizer!) or MC/Z or MC/H. (MC stands for Master Chief in case you aren't that bright)

Rating: M15+

Summary: John and Cortana end up in the Justice League universe and become part of the league. Contains swearing, blood and gore, some sex scenes (Eventually once I've figured out a pairing, MC/BC hint hint).

John blearily woke up to find himself out of his MJOLNIR armour in what seemed to be a medical room, a slight hint of panic hit him, where was Cortana? How did he get out of his armour? How did he get here? And where was "here"?

A door slid open and what appeared to be a Forerunner Monitor like Guilty Spark floated in the room and said in a calm pleasant female voice "Greetings to you Reclaimer, I am 842 Sliver of Hope and I am the Monitor and guardian of this military and scientist outpost"

The first words John said were "How did I get here? And where's Cortana?" "Not to worry Reclaimer, your Construct is being repaired and upgraded. And as to how you came to be here is simple, this outpost picked up your ship's distress beacon and I sent out my servants to collect you" Sliver explained "What happened to my armour?" John asked as he felt absolutely naked without it, "Your armour was in need of repairs and is being upgraded to a Class eighteen Forerunner combat skin, the upgrades are being overwatched by your construct" Sliver replied.

The next question John asked was "What happened to the Forward unto Dawn?" Sliver answered "Your ship is being repaired, upgraded and outfitted according to your construct's specifications and will soon be ready to use again" came Sliver's answer. Sliver then said "I sense a certain amount of distrust from you Reclaimer, have I done something to offend you?" John then began explaining his encounters with Guilty Spark and Spark's actions.

When John finished explaining Sliver said remorsefully "Yes your construct did mention Spark and his actions, it is sad to hear the loss of two Installations and the Ark but it seemed that Spark had fallen into Rampancy regarding his Installation showing an unhealthy attachment to it and what you did was necessary and it seems that the Parasite will not be a threat to the galaxy for awhile yet" "So you're not upset at this information?" John asked, Sliver replied "I won't lie, I am distressed by this but I have weighed the options as it were and your race's actions I have deemed necessary to stop the Parasite and regarding Spark's actions, his actions showed signs of Rampancy which explained his unhealthy attachment to his installation and to why he killed your comrade"

"But you are in need of rest Reclaimer and I have other duties to attend to so just lie back on the bed and the medical sentinels will take care of the rest" Sliver said and with that Sliver floated off to attend her tasks.

The medical procedures that were preformed on John by the sentinels had completely healed John of all his injuries that he accumulated on the Ark and even improved his augmentations.

Leaving the medical bay John was directed to the scientist engineering factory where he saw Cortana's hologram looking over robotic servers putting together pieces of olive green armour components together; hearing John's footsteps Cortana turned around and greeted John "Hey big guy, how was your sleep?" she asked "Fine, what are you working on?" John replied "Just your new and improved MJOLNIR armour, Sliver was very helpful in providing a few combat skins for me to combine with your old armour, it's based on my 'mother' Dr. Halsey's notes and diary" Cortana said "You mean she had plans for a new MJOLNIR?" John queried incredulously "Essentially yes, Dr. Halsey had plans for a Mark VII MJOLNIR that was in the planning stages before Reach happened. Her notes included a plasma-fusion hybrid battery system, so basically two reactors are in the armour, limited manipulation of the energy shields like making airfoils, flaps, wings even, even though the manipulation is limited. There's also atmospheric insertion technology, slipspace technology & active AI transfer protocols" Cortana explained

"Plus the shields and armour components are a fusion of a Forerunner class eighteen combat skin, which is the highest level of combat skin which we know of, and your Mark VI MJOLNIR armour, so there three and a half layers of shields, the metal is a tungsten-titanium carbon mixture and is streamlined and denser but the metal is altered at a chemical and molecular level without it being heavy, so the metal is extremely resilient to energy based weapons, explosives and ballistics, both standard and advanced" Cortana added, she continued on "You could take about seven fuel rod shots directly and plasma grenades won't do much damage to your armour. Gauss rounds and plasma mortar rounds will also have a tough time against you as well."

"Nice, anything else?" John asked, Cortana smiled and said "The Armour also has built in recharge points for energy or plasma weapons such as energy swords, just clip them to your armour when they're depleted or half empty and the armour will do the rest. Other goodies I've added to the armour are inbuilt energy wrist blades, active stealth module, anti gravity boosters and a healing module that heals you completely using something I picked up from Forerunner medical databases, something I call Bio-salve" "Bio-salve?" John said "It's kinda like biofoam but semi-permanent and without the pain. It's composed of synthetic organic cells that speed up the healing process of the body without any adverse affects; it can seal wounds, mend organs and tissue and set bones and the new MJOLNIR has a self sustaining supply of it and can manufacture it" Cortana said.

"The new MJOLNIR's features have been upgraded and improved; for instance there are less grappling points on the armour and it's more streamlined, the reactive metal liquid crystal has been repaired and upgraded giving it a higher level of power and performance, the force multiplication circuits are now new and improved and the hydrostatic gel has been cleared of viscosity and given a smoother function base"

John took all the information about the MJOLNIR in and remarked "If any other Spartans were here right now, I'd know a couple who would be drooling all over it" Cortana smiled at that remark and said "Put it on and test it out, see if it's comfortable for you"

John found that the new MJOLNIR was far easier to put on than his Mark VI, after going through the paces in it he found it was just like, if not better than his Mark VI armour; the new armour was more reactive and fluid as if he wasn't wearing his armour at all.

The armour wasn't the only thing that got an overhaul, many of the weapons and vehicles that were on the Dawn were upgraded by Sliver whilst retaining their appearance. The UNSC weapons were given better types of ammunition and hitting power including what Cortana called gauss rounds, though Sliver was surprised that John still wanted use such weapons that were considered quite weak compared to Forerunner weapons but upgraded and manufactured them anyway.

The energy and plasma weapons, both UNSC and Covenant, were improved as well with greater battery capacity, hitting power and in the case of the energy swords given recharge modules.

There were also Forerunner weapons as well, one such weapon was a cross between a UNSC assault rifle and Covenant carbine; it could fire plasma bolts rapidly or make single shots for sniping, these too were taken by John.

When John got a first look at the repaired Dawn, it looked more like a Forerunner Dreadnought; with energy shields, armour plating, improved weapons, speed and manoeuvrability making it a more effective warship. There were now two super MAC guns as well as two normal MAC guns, five mass driver turrets, Covenant plasma turrets, sentinel beam turrets and Forerunner torpedo turrets. Sliver had also manufactured practically a full army of vehicles ranging from mongooses, warthogs, hornets, falcons, pelicans, EVA booster frames, albatross drop ships, and longsword and sabre fighters to scorpion, grizzly and rhino tanks, including Covenant vehicles such as the ghosts, banshees, Brute choppers and wraiths.

The scientific technology that was now incorporated in the Dawn would make all the top technology in the UNSC look like mere toys in comparison.

Upgrades on Cortana had been enormous as she was now the equivalent of a Forerunner Monitor AI class and she could practically live indefinitely without falling into rampancy. The Dawn now had a full complement of sentinels; military grade, medical grade and utility grade and strato grade for space borne missions and also constructors.

Inside the Dawn were assembly factories, refinery systems and scientific labs for uses other than combat. The slipspace drive had been repaired and improved, though Sliver did warn John and Cortana that the area around the outpost was quite unstable for slipspace work as there were many Forerunner ships that were wrecks and often used for salvaging parts but they could have an effect on the Dawn's slipspace drive.

As soon as the Dawn was prepped and ready to leave, John and Cortana bade farewell to Sliver, as Sliver had to remain behind as Sliver's duty was to the outpost. As John and Cortana left the outpost in the Dawn and activated the slipspace drive a rumbling hit the ship and the slipspace portal changed a different colour; Cortana and John quickly noticed what was going on and Cortana quickly said "John we need to pull out of slipspace now!" "Do it!"

Pulling out of slipspace, they arrived at their destination; Earth, only what surprised John and Cortana was that there were no UNSC space stations and Africa looked like it had never been glassed at all, John asked "Cortana is this Earth? It looks like Earth" "It is Earth, but it's not the Earth we know" Cortana said "What do you mean?" John queried "I've just scanned the planet and sent Clarion spy drones and it's definitely earth but for a few things" Cortana replied

"For one thing it's the twenty-first century and there are costumed super-heroes and super-villains" Cortana explained "You are pulling my leg right?" John asked "No I am not John, hang on I'll show you some images of a super-hero in action". Bringing up a video, the video showed a strong well built man clad red and blue with an S on his chest flying through the air fighting a giant robot; the red and blue clad man took two direct rockets to his body and was unharmed though thrown back a few metres.

This was definitely not the history books John read and he remarked "This I definitely don't remember in the history lessons of Earth" "Well this Earth might not be our Earth at all" Cortana said, John looked and asked "What do you mean?" "Well this is Earth, but humanity hasn't begun colonising or terra forming other planets, space travel is still rudimentary and the presence of heroes and villains with super powers tells me this might not be our universe at all" Cortana replied "Do you think that the slipspace drive teleported us to another dimension?" John asked

"Possibly, it could've been all those wrecks at the outpost that interfered with the slipspace drive" Cortana mused she then said "John, why don't we establish you on the ground just till we get a hang of this world" "Civilian?" John asked, John had never really had to undercover missions even though he had been trained and to tell the truth being out of his new MJOLNIR would make him feel utterly exposed "Do we really have to?" John asked "Why not? It'll give you some practice to adjust to normal society, and put to rest those rumours of Spartans back at the UNSC" Cortana said

_Two weeks later: New York City_

John had integrated himself well into the city, Cortana hacked into databases and set up an identity for him; he was John Jacob Mendez raised by his 'godmother' Dr. Catherine Halsey after his parents died in a car accident. John's occupation was an up and coming businessman of medical technology invented by his godmother. For funding Cortana siphoned money off numerous corrupt businessmen, crime lords and politicians and sending evidence of their crimes to the law; Cortana had managed to siphon sixty billion dollars, more than enough to begin John's company, Halsey-Mendez Incorporated.

Spartans IIs had never truly adapted well into civilian disguise, though members of Gray Team and Black Team loved blending into normal society for missions, whilst John had never really utilised those skills he did not forget them.

After setting up his company building and finding employees of trustworthy nature, looking through police, both national and international as well as FBI records, for criminal activity and began setting up his technology.

When the new medical technology from Halsey-Mendez Inc. came out on the market, many were sceptical of it but after numerous tests and positive results buyers and investors came flooding in for shares in the company, of course John had Cortana check potential investors' criminal records for legitimacy.

But with this new company came John's newest enemy; paperwork, it boggled John's mind at how someone did this for a living and did not go mad but kept his frustration and boredom under wraps. In his spare time however, John read all the files Cortana had on all the superheroes and villains in the world, learning their weaknesses and strengths and identities.

_Wayne Enterprises, Gotham City_

Bruce Wayne, also known to some as the Batman, was looking over this new medical technology from Halsey-Mendez Inc.; the dermacortic steroids drug used to speed up the healing process of tissue was phenomenal as tests showed third degree burn victims recovered within days, severely cutting down the reliance on skin grafts and the newest drug polypseudomorphine was just as effective as actual drug but without the addictive effects, Bruce had plans to use this drug as a healing agent and for capturing criminals when force was not the best idea. Bruce's faithful English butler, Alfred, came into the room and set some files down on the table and said "Here are the files you asked for sir, it seems this new company is making quite a headway with medical science" "It is, it makes most of today's medical drugs look like placebos" Bruce said "What do we know about this John Jacob Mendez fellow?" Alfred asked. Reading the files Bruce answered "Born in 1979 to Franklin Mendez and Beatrice Fairchild, his parents were killed in a car accident and was raised by his godmother Dr. Catherine Halsey, who was a gifted scientist in medical technology with a substantial trust fund, apparently Catherine and her godson trusted each other so much that Catherine allowed John full use of her trust fund; she passed away a few years ago to cancer and wanted her godson to use her research to help humanity. John was taught at a prestigious private school in Virginia, majoring in medical science, mathematics, engineering and business and seems trustworthy and has had no run ins with the law to speak of and lives in a private estate outside of New York"

"He does seem to be clean of any criminal record, so it may be worthwhile in investing some money in his technology" Alfred quipped Bruce contemplated and said "Maybe Alfred, maybe"

_New York_

John had just finished his workload for the day at the office and had been to three meetings and was driving back to his estate in, at Cortana's insistence to blend in with society, a custom made Lamborghini built by Cortana, inside the trunk of the Lamborghini was his, what Cortana dubbed, Mark X MJOLNIR, an assault rifle with gauss rounds, armour piercing rounds and standard rounds, dual SMGs with full ammo loadouts and a Battle Rifle.

Driving down the street John was contacted by Cortana "Chief we've got a situation" "What kind of situation?" John replied, "Three super criminals consisting of Metallo, Killer Frost and Atomic Skull along with non-powered terrorists are holding hostages at the U.N environmental summit, Superman, Steel and Supergirl are there but with the presence of Metallo things are looking pretty grim for them, maybe you should go and give them a hand" Cortana reported "Just so long as I don't have to say any corny one liners" John said and drove off down a secluded alley to be teleported to the Dawn to get changed

All things considered, things were going fairly unwell for Superman and co., Metallo's kryptonite beams had done a fair bit of damage to the Last Son of Krypton and Supergirl was faring badly against Atomic Skull who was continuously taking pot shots at civilians forcing Kara to take the hits and Steel was frozen in place by Frost, just as all hoped seemed lost, a massive burst of light erupted in the middle of the area; when the light faded a figure wearing black and green armour armed to the teeth, wearing a helmet with a gold visor appeared. Killer Frost was the first to react "Who the hell are you?" the armoured figure didn't respond and pulled out a rifle of unknown make and fired at Frost in the knees, Frost cried out in pain and fell down on the ground writhing in pain. This shocked Skull into saying to the terrorists "What are you waiting for? Shoot him!" he yelled, the terrorists responded by firing a salvo into the armoured foe but nothing got through the golden aura surrounding their assailant, Steel was surprised and exclaimed "Personal energy shields?"

John quickly moved to avoid a blast from Atomic Skull and fired a few rounds from his battle rifle into the legs and shoulders of Skull, as soon as Skull was down, John focussed on the terrorists, spraying into them with his assault rifle until they were all down and injured. Rushing towards Metallo, Metallo fired a kryptonite beam at the Spartan but the beam was deflected by the shields and Metallo had his kryptonite heart ripped out from him and punched heavily in the head by John, so forcefully it left a large dent in the side of Metallo's head. Metallo was soon down and John put the kryptonite in a lead lined pouch and pulled Clark and Kara up to their feet and freed Steel.

Clark was just wondering who the new arrival was, when reporters suddenly mobbed the area surrounding the new arrival. Lois Lane was the first to rush up to the Spartan and asked "Excuse me; what's it like to be a hero?" John looked at Lois and said "I'm no hero ma'am; I'm just doing my duty" other reporters flooded in with numerous questions, Clark considered using his x-ray vision when the Spartan turned around and was bathed in bright light, he was leaving the same way he came, Clark said "Wait, who are you?" John turned slightly and said over his shoulder "Master Chief Petty Officer Spartan-117 and yes, I am in the military but that is classified information which will remain classified" and disappeared.

John's lethal methods created much controversy in the superhero and villain community and in the civilian and media community, sparking shock and fear over someone who was willing to use lethal force, some in the civilian and media communities commended John for such actions whilst some and the superhero community were shocked by the Spartan's actions and inciting fear from the supervillain community at the revelation that there was now a hero who would be willing to cross the line.

_Gotham City, Wayne Manor_

Clark had flown to Gotham to meet with Bruce to discuss the arrival of the Spartan, reaching the Manor in full costume and was greeted by Alfred and led down into the Bat Cave where Clark found Bruce at the Batcomputer going over the news reports and videos of the Spartan in action "What have you found on this 'Spartan' so far? Clark asked "He's very well trained, possibly military, and his armour doesn't correspond to anything from Lex Corp or other companies, could it be similar to Steel's armour?" Bruce asked "No, Lex's power suits had in-built weapons and Steel's does as well and neither of them have shield technology at least the ones I've seen so far don't, Green Lantern can make energy shields but he requires his power ring to do it and I don't see anything that could pass for an emitter and the Spartan's shields are human sized and shield technology like this Spartan's would require a tremendous power source, possibly a fusion reactor but I've never heard of a fusion reactor made small enough to be fitted into a suit of armour on any scale" Clark said

"His weapons don't match any known weapon profile I have on database; his first rifle was semi-automatic using 9.4x40mm .37 calibre rounds and his second rifle is an automatic using 7.62mm rounds which is odd because such rounds are never used for assault rifles because of weight and recoil issues, the assault rifle must have an advanced recoil system to handle such kickback" Bruce said "The way he appeared in the battle was obviously teleportation, I've seen most kinds of teleportation technology but his teleportation tech doesn't match anything I've seen" Clark said

Bruce pointed out on the video "This Spartan knew exactly where to shoot to bring down those terrorists without killing them; he must've done it to avoid making you angry" "He was certainly calm about it, I considered using my x-ray vision on him but he kept away from it, so he knows about my abilities and may have a file on me and no doubt Kara and Steel as well" Clark said

As the two watched the video taking in all the details, one thing was certain they would certainly be watching for the Spartan and his actions

_Metropolis, Lex Corp_

Lex was at his desk looking at the video footage of the Spartan in action; this Spartan's technology was interesting, Lex had gone out of his way to locate any scientists who had developed anything similar to energy shields but was unsuccessful. Lex had also gone through all his company's files regarding powered exo-skeletons that might've been similar to the Spartan's.

This Spartan's armour and technology was something that the criminal genius and businessman wanted look at and possibly use to expand his empire and give him a few more options in taking down his long time foe Superman

Mercy came in with a stack of files and laid them down on the desk and Lex spoke "Are these all the files I asked for?" "Yes Lex everything concerning power armour and shield technology is all here" Mercy replied, Mercy then looked at Lex and asked hesitantly "Lex, are you sure that going after this… Spartan is a good move?"

Lex looked up from the video and asked "Why do you ask me such a question?" "This guy's got powerful technology, but if he's in the same league as Superman, he won't bow down to anyone" Mercy replied nervously "And why do you say that?" Lex asked, it was not wise to question Lex as he may respond violently with words or action or both but Mercy had seen the footage of the Spartan in action and she felt uneasy about seeing someone who was willing to use lethal force against his opponents

"It's just that I have a feeling about this Spartan" Mercy finally said "And that would be?" "He's not the same as Superman, he uses guns Lex and he's not afraid in using them, and the way he shot those metas and terrorists shows me that he isn't afraid to use lethal force against his opponents, even kill them if he has to and he's based in New York so we have nothing to gain by going there"

Lex replied "Well I have a feeling about him as well, this Spartan's technology can be useful to Lex Corp and to me as well & with some… modifications I can make them better. Find out whatever you can, I don't care what it takes"

_Meanwhile_

A shadowy government organisation had also looked at the footage of John in action and discussed about the Spartan, they poured through all military records both in regular and special forces that concerned operatives and ex-operatives that used power armour in battle, and the technology the Spartan possessed was certainly interesting to them and they discussed the benefits of recruiting John into their organisation and sent operatives into New York to Find the Spartan

One thing was for certain this government organisation was certainly going to keep an eye on John.

_In the Forward unto Dawn, Space_

John had just entered the bridge of the ship, after being teleported out of New York, Cortana said to John "Nice work, you made quite an impression, there are numerous news channels showing footage of you right now" John sighed irritably, he didn't like being the centre of attention, even when the Spartan II program and its soldiers were made known to the public he didn't like attending the media conferences and public appearances

"Don't remind me, it was never my intention to be caught by the media, I should've left as soon as I dealt with those thugs" John said exasperatedly Cortana's avatar shrugged and she said "It can't be helped, you were bound to be seen by the media anyway so better now than later with your pants down"

"Oh by the way, you've been given an invitation to a charity ball in Gotham City by Bruce Wayne, it seems he wants to meet you in person for all the work your company's done" Cortana said "Speaking of Bruce Wayne, how did you know he was You-Know-Who?" John asked, Cortana replied "I ran into a government database belonging to an organisation calling itself Cadmus, it seems Cadmus is a black-ops government group that keeps an eye on meta-humans, superheroes and super-villains and no doubt has countermeasures to use against them. No doubt Cadmus will want to find out all they can about you and they may possibly recruit by persuasion or force to get their hands on our technology, as I've looked at their files they have a number of metas being recruited or blackmailed into working for Cadmus"

John sighed mentally, a black-ops government group was not what he needed right now, Cortana noticed John's demeanour and reassured him "Don't worry Chief, I've got them on surveillance as well, as well as countermeasures in their databases in case they do have anything on you such as viruses and such, all in Forerunner and Covenant glyphs so they'll have a hard time getting around them" John smiled and thanked Cortana and got out of his MJOLNIR armour to get dressed in, what he labelled a monkey suit, a tuxedo for the charity ball in Gotham

_Gotham City, Wayne Manor _

Driving in his Lamborghini to Wayne Manor, John pulled up in front of the Manor; the Manor was certainly well built, but few knew that it was built over a series of caves, perfect for Bruce Wayne to hide his hideout and gadgets as Batman.

Giving the car keys to the valet, John entered the Manor; it was very big and opulent, with paintings and antiques decorating the entrance hall. Paparazzi cameras flashed as John walked down the hall.

Not many people in the UNSC had John's face, only other Spartans and key personnel had seen his face, and whilst John didn't know, Dr. Halsey and Cortana once said they found John attractive in a primitive animal sort of way.

John never thought about his looks all that much as he was more concerned with matters at hand such as a war. John's face was very well formed and strong looking, though there were a few scars as a testament to his struggles as a soldier, despite his pale skin that was in a hue that was slightly un-nerving, John was very good looking, enough to attract women at the sight of him.

In all honesty, John really didn't want to be here, with all the high class, snobbish rich people but he had to keep up appearances as a CEO of a multibillion dollar company, so he had to come to the charity ball.

John entered the ballroom and seated himself at a table and watched as people danced on the dance floor, John never really learned how to dance, it wasn't part of his training as a Spartan; many women were looking John's way flirtatiously, a few of the more… risk taking women came up to John and tried to start up a conversation with him, John was polite in entertaining them with conversation but he didn't like the way people were looking at him; women were looking at him like he was piece of meat and the men looked at him as though they were alpha male lions intent on protecting their females.

One particular woman by the name of Veronica Vreeland came up to John and struck up a conversation with him "Mr. Mendez it's so nice to finally meet you" she gushed as she shook John's hand, again John was polite, squeezing her hand gently so as to not reveal his strength and said "Please, call me 'Chief' everybody I work with does" Veronica looked a little surprised but quickly asked "Well Chief, would you care to escort me to the dance floor and indulge me in a dance?"

John quickly thought it over in his head; it would be rude to refuse and when he thought about it he knew a few people, namely his fellow Spartans, Dr. Halsey, Cortana and Johnson, who would probably be laughing their hearts out at the sight of John dancing. John replied "Very well, but you'll have to excuse my dancing skills, I've never danced before"

John led Veronica out on the dance floor, where Veronica took charge of John, showing him how and where to hold her. They slowly turned on the spot, John felt more than a little awkward and tried to politely hold a conversation with Ms. Vreeland; they discussed John's new company, Veronica insisted on John calling her by her nickname 'Ronnie'

Many women were throwing Ronnie hate filled looks at her, Bruce Wayne standing in the corner was enjoying himself as he did not have to deal with women chasing after him this time but out of politeness he decided to rescue John from the clutches of Ronnie.

Walking out on the dance floor, Bruce introduced himself to John "Mr. Mendez, it's nice to finally meet you in person, so glad you could make it to my little party" he said offering his hand John shook Bruce's hand and replied "It's nice to meet you too Mr. Wayne" "Maybe we can discuss a collaboration of our companies?" Bruce asked, John excused himself from Ronnie and followed Bruce to a nearby table; Bruce took note of how John moved, it was as if he was a soldier, the way John moved spoke of discipline and training.

As the two sat down at a table and discussed the benefits of their companies collaborating, the conversation was pleasant but John was careful in giving vague answers about him, he didn't want to reveal everything about himself as he didn't fully trust Bruce Wayne as of yet.

After the ball was over, John had Cortana teleport him and the Lamborghini up to the Dawn so he could catch some sleep. The next day was going to be a long one.

Angry lil' elf: whew that's all I'm writing for this chapter, in the next chapter I'm going to have John meet Superman and Lois Lane for an interview as to why John uses lethal force and have John help out with the invasion of the Imperium and meet the other League Founders.

As for pairings, if you look on my profile, I have set up a poll as I mentioned earlier at the start, they are: Black Canary, Huntress, Fire, Ice, Zatanna, Vixen, Dr. Light, Crimson Fox, Catwoman, Lois Lane and Veronica Vreeland.

I included the last three as a joke, so don't vote for them. I'm not including Wonder Woman or Supergirl because Freedom Guard has them on his poll so I don't want to rip off him for any reason.

I'm kinda leaning towards Master Chief and Black Canary together (hint hint), or Huntress and Master Chief or maybe Zatanna and Chief together because I think those girls need a stoic super soldier's love in their lives, nothing against Green Arrow or Question, I think they're ok and all that but I've read some Green Arrow comics and fan fiction and I just particularly like him as a boyfriend as he's cheated on Canary a couple of times so… yeah and I consider Question as a bit of nut job whose head is wound too tight and as for Zatanna, well… Bats isn't giving her any loving so we'll see how she fares with the Chief.

Anyways please read, review and subscribe and also read my other fics and subscribe to them as well

Cheers,

Angry lil' elf


	2. Chapter 2

A League of his own, Chapter 2

Angry lil' elf: hey everyone it's an update, isn't that sweet? In this chapter we see John be confronted by Clark Kent and Lois Lane as to why John uses such lethal methods against his opponents. Also we'll see John join the founding members of the league to fight the Imperium. We'll also see some flirtation between John and Catwoman, when Catwoman is in New York, hmm a female burglar wearing skin tight leather flirting with a 7 foot tall Spartan super soldier, what is this world coming to? Anyway read on my dear readers, read on, and remember to review and subscribe.

John was getting into a daily routine, get up, brush teeth, have breakfast, have a shower, get dressed, go to work, come home, have dinner, work out in the gym for a bit, watch TV and go to bed. There were a few instances where John was called by Cortana to deal with in his MJOLNIR.

One such instance was when Kasnian freedom fighters/terrorists had held up the Kasnian Embassy and were holding hostages including a U.S senator and a Kasnian ambassador. The situation was getting out of hand for the police and SWAT teams as the terrorists had killed a few civilians and policemen, so John had to step in. Armed with a pair of SMGs, a Sniper Rifle and a Shotgun; John took out the first two terrorists by shooting them in the legs with his Sniper Rifle; rendering them immobile and destroyed their radios before they could call for backup.

Activating his stealth module, John stole his way into the embassy, silently taking down terrorists with quick strikes to the head or shots to the chest and legs with his SMGs. As soon as he reached the main room where the hostages were being held, John pulled the pin on a flash bang grenade and threw it in the room. A loud 'BOOM' filled the room and bright light hit the eyes of the terrorists blinding them, John made his move.

Using the shotgun, John fired precise shots into the terrorists, punching through their body armour in seconds and incapacitating them. John soon freed the hostages and provided medical aid for any who had been injured, when John was just turning to leave, the U.S Senator asked "Wait, who are you soldier?" "My name's not important sir, I'm just doing my duty" John replied with his voice distorted slightly through his helmet speakers.

Exiting the building, cameras flashed as reporters tried to mob the Spartan, asking questions about where he came from, who he was and why he used lethal force. John gave a simple answer to the reporters' questions "Where I come from doesn't matter, nor does it matter who I am and as to why I used lethal force I am simply doing what I've been trained to do all my life" John said, a reporter asked "Won't that make you no different than a killer even if you didn't directly kill them?" "It was a choice I made; they killed civilians and police officers and left families without their loved ones, so I made the decision no-one wanted to make but I will only use lethal and fatal force if the enemy I'm facing meets that criteria" John replied.

John's statement caused a lot of concern for people in the world, whilst there were some media outlets, civilians and law enforcement who commended John for his actions and reasons for doing so, there were others who weren't entirely comfortable with the fact that John was willing to go that far. Many in the superhero community were shocked at John's statement and were forming theories about the Spartan; some were saying that the Spartan was a villain pretending to be a good guy and was just waiting for the right time to strike, others saying he was like Batman gone wrong. The supervillain community were now downright frightened at the prospect of facing the Spartan in combat, as many of the superheroes they faced never tried to kill them and so every supervillain made it a point to avoid New York as much as possible lest they faced John's wrath.

Cortana watched all the media footage of John giving his statement to the news and there were already some people in media who were slagging off John and whilst Cortana wasn't going to do anything to them as they had the right to free speech but she didn't like them slagging off her Spartan and was already forming plans to really mess up their lives if they distorted the facts.

But Cortana was also keeping an eye on Cadmus' activity; so far they had sent a few agents to collect information on the Spartan but were getting nowhere, so far. Cortana knew that Cadmus was just a few steps away from becoming what they feared, a force for good gone wrong, & as such needed to be kept an eye on and what worried Cortana was if Cadmus got their hands John's technology, they would ultimately use it to destroy everyone whom they considered to be a threat in their paranoia.

_Outskirts of New York_

Clark Kent was shocked by the Spartan's actions and statement and was assigned to go to New York with Lois Lane and Jimmy Olsen at the request of Perry to follow up on the latest sighting of the Spartan. Cortana knew they would be in town and decided a meeting between Clark and John was needed and sent a private message to Lois and Clark via fax at the hotel they were staying at for them to meet the Spartan.

Meeting at the designated meeting spot which was at abandoned warehouse, Lois and Jimmy waited, Clark in Superman mode flew in and asked the two "How long have you two been waiting?" "Only half an hour, do you think he'll show up?" Jimmy answered "Hopefully, but I wonder why he wanted to meet with me?" Clark mused; Lois said "He probably wants to explain himself and his actions and why he uses lethal force"

A burst of light filled the area, and the seven foot Spartan stood in front of them, armed to the teeth, Clark wasn't sure what was going to happen, the Spartan said in a distorted voice "Relax, I said I was going to meet you and I meant it, my guns are for my own protection but I have no intention of fighting you" taking his battle rifle from his back, the Spartan activated the safety placed it aside as well as the magnum and unclipped the grenades from his armour.

Clark was just about to use his x-ray vision to see who the Spartan really was, but the Spartan said to him "Don't even think about using your x-ray vision Superman, there's no need for it here, I'm not here with hostile intentions, I already know about you and your own secrets so I would appreciate it if you don't look into mine but don't take it as a threat however I am merely stating the facts" this stopped Clark cold and then he said "Alright then, now you requested a meeting didn't you? Might I ask what it's about?"

"Your friend Lois is right about me wanting to explain myself and why I use lethal force, so I'm here to give my side of the story" John said "I've been trained to take life without hesitation. That much you two already know; as you saw at the environmental summit and a few days ago when I fought the Kasnian terrorists. If I wanted to I would've just killed them right then and there"

Clark frowned and said "You're not really making a good case for yourself" "I know but I'm not done explaining yet. I've been taught by my teachers to tell the difference between right and wrong and to know when not to use excessive force and also to know when the only option to save people's lives is to take another person's life. And there is a difference between a soldier and a murderer; a soldier is given clearance to take lives in the defence of others and a murderer merely does it for much darker and selfish reasons" John said

Lois looked at the Spartan and said "From what I'm hearing you sound like you've been in the military. How long have you been in the military anyway?" John replied "All my life, if you want to know Ms. Lane but I'm not revealing everything about me just yet, suffice to say I will only use lethal force if the enemy I'm facing has reached that point that they can only be stopped by killing them. That is my side of the story Kal-El, our methods may be different but our goals are the same, or am I wrong?"

Clark looked thoughtful for a few moments and finally said "Alright, I can see changing your mind won't work but I can tell you're truthful and sincere about your intentions" John asked "& how do you know that?" "Your heartbeat is calm and steady, and though you've altered your voice and I can't seem to break it, it didn't carry a tone of malice, so you're either the greatest liar or actor in the world or you're telling the truth" Clark replied.

John asked "You're willing to take that risk?" "I am, though I hope the day you resort to killing someone doesn't come without a good reason" John nodded and said "That makes two of us"

John and Clark shook hands whilst Jimmy took a picture, which John was annoyed at that but he didn't show it. With the meeting over, Clark, Lois and Jimmy headed back into town, whilst John was teleported back up to the Dawn. Clark was heading to his hometown of Smallville to discuss his meeting with the Spartan with his parents and cousin.

_Smallville, Kent Farm_

"Why didn't you tell me that you were meeting the Spartan again?" Kara complained to her adoptive cousin after listening to Clark talk about his meeting with John, Clark shook his head and said "It was on an assignment for the Planet, besides didn't you have a science exam to deal with?" Kara gave a un-lady like snort and said "Still, you could've told me you were meeting him, I still want to thank him for saving my life back at the environmental summit"

Martha Kent then spoke "It seems like this Spartan is very serious in doing things his way Clark" "Still it's kinda disturbing that he's willing to go that far Ma" Clark said. Jonathon Kent then said to Clark "As you said yourself the Spartan only uses lethal force if the enemy he's facing reaches the point that they're too much of a threat to leave alive. He's only doing what he's been trained to do"

"But still I'm not sure I could be comfortable with that, knowing he'd be ready to cross that line" Clark argued "We can only hope that that time won't come soon" Martha said.

_New York_

A lithe, petite leather clad woman with a cowl with ears, slipped into the museum unnoticed, except for a certain super soldier on patrol. Selina Kyle AKA Catwoman had recently moved to the city with a series of heists involving cat themed jewellery, the police had been unsuccessful in capturing her, so Cortana sent John to go after her, while John argued that it was a matter for the police he went anyway.

Turning on his stealth module, John shadowed Selina, following her into the museum. John watched Selina carefully; there was no doubt that Selina was graceful in her movements, just like a cat, John had read her file; Selina was a cat burglar but a vocal animal rights activist involved with numerous animal rights organisations and had used her Catwoman persona to investigate companies that abused animal rights.

Selina stealthily made her way to the jewellery room, seeing her prize, the Eye of the Panther, Selina gave a small smile and walked quietly over to the display case and used her in built claws to start cutting a hole into the glass.

As soon as the hole was cut, she was just about to grab the Eye when an armoured hand grabbed her own. "I'd rather you not steal that Miss Kyle" came a tough gritty voice slightly distorted, Selina gave a gasp of shock and lashed out with her other hand, which was caught by the Spartan's other hand.

Selina then got her first look at the Spartan, she had of course seen the footage of the Spartan in action and was somewhat frightened by the Spartan's statement of how he would use lethal force against his opponents but she was just a thief not a meta powered criminal bent on world domination, so Selina decided to move to New York anyway.

The Spartan's armour looked very high-tech and intimidating, and the way he sneaked up on her was almost inhuman, his armour should've made a lot more noise so she would've heard it, she couldn't see the Spartan's face; nothing but a helmet and a gold visor so she couldn't tell what he looked like.

Selina gave her most seductive smile and said "Aw, I'm sure we could come to an arrangement Mr. Tall and strong" and stretched her curvaceous body so that the Spartan could get a good view, but Selina didn't know that Spartan super soldiers' bodies were altered with a suppressed sex drive, so it would take more effort and far longer for them to be attracted to someone, so Selina's proverbial shot and powder were wasted on the Spartan.

John just narrowed his eyes inside his helmet, and just brought out some specially made cuffs to handcuff Selina. Selina smirked seductively as John moved her hands behind her back and she remarked "Didn't know you were into the kinky stuff for a soldier" John rolled his eyes in his helmet.

Cortana was watching through the helmet's visor camera and burst out laughing at Selina's remark, John spoke to Cortana "Sure Cortana, laugh it up" he said, Cortana still laughing said to him "Sorry Chief, but you have to admit that was pretty funny" John rolled his eyes and handcuffed the cat thief and started to walk her outside.

Selina struggled with the handcuffs, John noticed what she was doing and said "Don't bother trying to escape, those handcuffs are specially designed and if you struggle for too long you'll get a mild electric shock" Selina heeded John's warning and stopped struggling.

Selina was simmering furiously inside, normally her seductive wiles would've worked on any man, she briefly wondered if the Spartan was a woman wearing a suit of armour and using a voice distorter, Selina then asked "Excuse me, but are you just a woman wearing a suit of armour just to be one of the boys?" John was a little taken unawares by that question but replied "No ma'am I am male" "You sure? You just ignored me hitting on you" Selina said "I'm very single minded" John stated.

Calling the police and handcuffing Selina to a lamppost, John waited for the police to arrive, a few minutes later, a patrol car came around and two officers stepped out of the vehicle and came up to John. John stated what happened and gave the officers a special key chip to unlock Selina's handcuffs.

Teleporting back to his estate, john took his armour off, stored it away and lay down in his bed to get some rest.

John's dreams were fitful, he was in his armour, but he wasn't on Earth, the sky was red and burning, there were strange green humanoid life forms being attacked by white humanoids and there were machines the size of Scarabs were firing red means of energy at the green life forms. Then a voice entered John's head "You… must… save… your world… from… the enemy… they… are… coming!" "What enemy?" John said "You… must… resist… You… must… fight!"

John woke with a start; Cortana's voice filled the room "Chief, are you alright? You were tossing and turning in your sleep" "It was… a dream… I think" John said "But it was more than a dream" he added "What do you mean?" Cortana asked "It's hard to describe, but it was like someone was in my head to give me a warning" John explained "What kind of warning?" Cortana asked "Something about an enemy coming to Earth, it sounded serious" John explained

"I'll check everything in the world and in space in case anything comes to invade, just get some rest you have a business meeting tomorrow" Cortana said John gave a slight growl and said "I hate paperwork".

_The next day_

John had finished his business meeting and workload for the day and was at his estate, when called by Cortana "Chief, it seems this dream warning of yours has some merit to it" "What do you mean?" John asked

"A number of the deep space sensors and satellites have been shut down for unknown reasons. There's one belonging to Wayne Enterprises being shut down right now, but Batman is on the case" Cortana said. "Could an invading army be shutting down the satellites down so their army can move in?" John asked as he headed to what he called 'The Armoury', "Could very well be Chief, you want me to teleport you to the location?" Cortana asked "Might as well give Batman a hand" John said reaching the Armoury and entering a code on a hidden closet to find his MJOLNIR and put it on.

_Outskirts of Metropolis_

Bruce was not faring well against the scientists; while they looked human they had unnatural strength and speed, the enemies had fled up stairs with Bruce following close behind.

Cornering one of the scientists near the satellite dish, the scientist began to fight back, Bruce was overwhelmed, when suddenly three gunshots sounded out and the scientist was on the ground clutching its abdomen, hissing and snarling in pain.

Clark had arrived on the scene to see Bruce knocked to the ground and the Spartan fire upon the scientist but strangely the scientist was hissing and snarling in pain that definitely did not sound human.

Floating down to Bruce and the Spartan, Clark asked "What's going on?" Bruce quickly filled him on the details. "This… being along with two others were tampering with the deep space satellites" he said "They're definitely not human" John said "How do you know that?" Clark asked the Spartan "I've scanned its body and it doesn't show any core body temperature and its inner physiology isn't human either, so it's obviously not human" the Spartan answered

"Do you think it's- argh!" Clark yelled out in pain, his face contorted in pain and fell unconscious, one of the other two scientists pressed a button on a small hand held control, Bruce and John realised what it was, a detonator, Bruce grabbed Clark; he, Clark and John leapt off the building just as it exploded.

Landing on the grass, John looked at the three scientists that had been caught in the explosion; their bodies were twisted in ways that would've killed normal humans but they twisted themselves back into shape and ran off, these scientists were definitely not human.

Looking back at Bruce and Clark, Clark seemed to have regained consciousness and had asked what was going on, Bruce explained that three 'scientists' were tampering with the station and sending out signals into deep space and after sending those signals, destroyed the station and it was happening to numerous satellite stations across the world.

John then said to Clark and Bruce "Those scientists could very well be advance agents for an alien invasion force, to update their superiors and eliminate any potential warning system that Earth has" Bruce said "That makes sense, if they eliminated all the warning systems on Earth there would be nothing to stop an invasion force making its way here undetected"

"Well if anything does happen, you can always call me" Clark said handing Bruce and John a signal emitter each. Telling them to use it if they were ever in a jam, Clark flew off, Bruce looked at his signal emitter and put in his utility belt, John looked at his signal emitter and placed it in one of his pouches.

_The next day_

Superman was leading the global nuclear disarmament, it was a bold move for the World Assembly to disarm all nuclear weapons in the world, but in John and Cortana's eyes it was huge mistake; the invasion was imminent and Earth was disarming itself?

Senator J. Allen Carter was the one who had suggested global nuclear disarmament and had endorsed that Superman be the planet's protector. Some heroes such as the Flash from Central City had aired their grievances and doubts that Superman could protect the world on his own but Superman had already begun to disarm all nuclear weapons due to massive public support.

But it was still not a wise move in John's eyes, an invasion force was on its way to Earth and Clark was removing the weaponry of Earth so he could defend it himself? It seemed a tad ego-centric in John's eyes, there was no doubt that Clark was powerful but even the Man of Steel isn't invincible.

John had a gut feeling about Senator Carter, Cortana had checked Carter's files and was in the all clear but something did not seem right to John.

"John, we got some activity in Metropolis; it's Batman in STAR Labs" John was already in his MJOLNIR armour and "Beam me up Cortana"

_Metropolis, STAR Labs_

Bruce was facing off against a very strong guard dog, he had entered STAR Labs and found the scientists but they were in some kind of organic stasis pod, he had managed to free them but the appearance of the guard dog had surprised and attacked him. Using his acrobatics, Bruce managed to jump on top of a wall to avoid the dog.

But the dog had morphed into a white alien creature and climbed the wall, charging into Bruce and slammed into him, knocking him out, before Bruce blacked out he managed to press the signal emitter button in his hand before falling unconscious.

Just as the alien guard dog was about to pounce on Bruce, the dog was grabbed by John and thrown across the room. The guard dog hissed and snarled at John; John responded by pulling out a needler gun and fired multiple times into the guard dog.

As soon as the crystal shards embedded themselves, they exploded, shredding the guard dog to pieces. Cortana took a scan of the alien guard dog and said "Definitely alien, no bone structure and its body is able to contort and shape shift into a variety of shapes and sizes, so it could assume any form it likes"

Clark flew into the building and saw Bruce unconscious, the alien stasis pods and John standing over the dead alien & asked "Spartan what happened?" John replied "Batman had tracked the alien agents to this lab and found the real scientists and was attacked by this guard dog and was knocked out but I came just in time to stop it from killing him".

Cortana then spoke to John inside the helmet, "John we've got incoming asteroids containing enemy vehicles" she said, John asked "ETA?" Cortana responded "Right about now!" the ground shook as three asteroids hit the ground outside, leaving large craters in the street.

John took out a wake-up stim from his pouch; Clark asked "What's that?" John answered "A wake-up stimulant, a fast acting non-addictive alternative to caffeine and most wake-up drugs" Injecting the drug into Bruce's neck, the stimulant took hold and Bruce groggily woke up and asked "What happened?" Clark answered "You got knocked out and the Spartan saved you from being killed by that alien and a few asteroids have crashed into the city" John then said "Those aren't ordinary asteroids, they've got alien attack vehicles in them, the invasion has begun".

Clark used his x-ray vision to look at the asteroids and saw the slumbering forms of the alien vehicles slowly begin moving, breaking free of their crusty shells. "The Spartan's right, those asteroids have alien attack vehicles in them and the attack vehicles are waking up" Clark said.

Just as Clark said that, the slumbering alien attack vehicles broke free of the shells and made their intentions clear. The attack vehicles were tall three legged forms that looked like they were made from an organic material.

Police, SWAT and local militia fired upon the vehicles with no success as the walkers fired red laser beams indiscriminately at buildings, civilians and military forces. "If you'll excuse me gentlemen, I'll need to stop those walkers" John said, leaving the building, Clark looked at Bruce and Bruce said "I'll be fine"

John quickly fired upon the alien walkers with his battle rifle using armour piercing rounds; aiming the eye of one walker, John aimed and squeezed the trigger, and three rounds fired out of the rifle and hit their intended target. The eye exploded with red energy toppling the walker down to the ground.

Clark was making some progress with fighting the walkers, slamming into them with his speed and strength, making the walkers topple over. Bruce took to the air with the Bat-Jet, using his missiles to make an impact on the walkers but with little success, barely managing to avoid a blast from a walker, Bruce turned his plane around for another attack run. Clark was hit by another migraine again but as soon as it dissipated, Clark felt called by an unknown presence and flew off.

Bruce noticed Clark Leaving the battle and began to follow Clark out of the battle field. John was busy helping out some civilians and local police move from a destroyed building when called by Cortana "Chief, Batman and Superman have left the area" she said, John asked "Any reason why?" "It seemed Clark had another seizure but snapped out of it and had a glazed look over his face and left, like he was being called by something" Cortana said.

"Best find out where they are going, can you track them Cortana?" John asked "Already done Chief; they're in the mountains near a military facility, I'll teleport you there as close as I can as soon as you're done here" just as Cortana said that John got caught in a blast from a walker and was thrown back thirty metres. Luckily John's shields protected him though he was slightly knocked out but he heard a voice calling out to him "_Get up Spartan, you are needed._" John shook his head and got up and said to Cortana "Cortana, I think I know why I've been having that dream and I think I know where to look for answers" Cortana replied "Hang on I'll beam you up to the Dawn and give you a few goodies then send you back down"

_In the mountains_

Bruce had managed to crash land safely onto a mountain ledge with the help of John Stewart AKA Green Lantern whilst J'onn J'onzz, the last Martian, phased out of the Bat-Jet to help Clark in dealing with the alien fighter jets.

Another hero, Hawkgirl, joined the fray surprising Bruce as he said "Hawkgirl? What is she doing here?" J'onn answered "I called her here to help, I must help as well", with that being said J'onn flew off, as Lantern spoke up "Sorry for being late, there was an uprising on Rigel nine" and flew off to intercept the alien fighter planes.

J'onn used his intangibility to trick alien fighters into shooting each other, Lantern used his power ring to fire beams of green energy into the fighters, and Hawkgirl smashed the fighter planes with her nth metal mace whilst Clark used a combination of heat vision and super strength to destroy his opponents.

It was at this point that one of the alien fighters pursued Hawkgirl and managed to shoot her, stunning her. Hawkgirl fell onto a ledge and the alien fighter closed in for the kill, when a beautiful woman with raven black hair, silver bracelets and a low cut one piece red and blue uniform landed on the ledge and said to Hawkgirl "Allow me"

The alien fighter plane fired off numerous red laser blasts at the newcomer and Hawkgirl, the newcomer using her bracelets to block the attacks. The strange beautiful woman had never seen these beams of light before but was thankful that her bracelets could block them, sending them right back to the shooter which was destroyed from its deflected blasts and was hurtling towards the two but a green bubble surrounded them protecting them from the flaming debris.

Lantern formed the shield around Hawkgirl and the newcomer and said to Clark "Who's the rookie in the tiara?" Clark tossed an alien fighter aside and replied "I'm not sure, but whoever she is, she's welcome to help out"

Bruce who had been sidelined during the fight was joined by a red streak known as the Flash AKA Wally West carrying a section of the Bat-Jet's wing "Hey Bats, I think you dropped this." Clark and the newcomer landed on the snow covered ledge and Wally noticed the newcomer and tried one of his many cheesy pickup lines

"Whoa! Where have you been all my life?"

The newcomer replied with a straight honest face "Themyscira" "Huh?" came Wally's confused and surprised reply, Hawkgirl luckily gave an explanation of the newcomer's answer "The home of the Amazons, I always thought that place was just a legend?" Hawkgirl asked, the newcomer answered "I assure it's as real as the ground on which we are standing on"

Wally in a love struck voice said "Pinch me I must be dreaming" which at that point Clark elbowed lightly receiving a small yelp of pain from Wally. Lantern then yelled a warning "We've got incoming!" as a new wave of alien fighters flew in.

The fighters were just about to do a strafing run, when a scarlet beam came out of nowhere destroying one of the fighters; the seven assembled heroes then noticed the Master Chief standing on a nearby ledge armed with a Spartan Laser.

The wave of fighters then focussed their attention on John as the seven heroes wondered why John was just standing there waiting, the newcomer then said in confusion "What in the name of Hera is he waiting for?"

The seven heroes got their answer as John brought out a single barrelled grenade launcher, fired and held the trigger. As soon as the explosive round was near two of the fighters, John released the trigger and an electromagnetic burst was released from the round short circuiting the fighters and making them crash into the cliff face.

The next fighter, John charged forward; while John wasn't as fast as his Spartan comrade Kelly or the Flash, he was swift enough. Leaping from the ledge and onto the fighter, John latched himself onto the fighter and brought out an energy sword. The fighter then veered towards the cliff in an attempt to brush the Spartan off. Observing the Spartan in action surprised the seven heroes at how John managed to stay on his foe at such speeds.

Activating the energy sword, John stabbed down into the fighter, effectively destroying the fighter and its occupant. Leaping onto the next fighter, John brought the energy sword into action again, slicing off one of its wings, making it lose control of its flight pattern. Just as the fighter was about to crash into the cliff face, John leapt off and activated his jet pack thrusters and manipulated his shields into gliding wings and pretty much flew over to the seven heroes and landed with a thud on the snow and walked towards them.

Lantern was stunned at the sight of the seven foot Spartan but shook his head, aimed his power ring at the Spartan and barked out "Hold it right there! Holster that weapon!" John looked at Lantern and said in an even tone "I am not here to fight you"

"Forgive me if I'm not convinced, now lower your weapon!" Lantern barked in a commanding tone "No gunnery sergeant Stewart, I will not, you are not my commanding officer, in fact I'd be the one outranking you if we were in the same branch" John replied, his tone equally commanding. Lantern was briefly surprised at how the Spartan knew his old Marine Corps rank but asked coldly

"Really, what's your rank in your branch then?"

John replied "My rank in the Navy is Master Chief Petty Officer, gunnery sergeant Stewart"

Stewart knew that rank well enough, having worked with naval personnel before and had studied ranks in basic training when he was in the Marine Corps. The Spartan did outrank him, but he wasn't going to relent on the matter and still aimed his ring at the Spartan until Clark stood between him and the Spartan and said "Ease up there Lantern, we don't have time to argue and the Spartan did help us after all."

Stewart lowered his ring slowly and then said "Fine, but don't expect me to trust him just like that, I've seen the news reports of how he's willing to use lethal force & that doesn't make him a very good ally to me."

Hawkgirl nodded her agreement as she had seen the news footage of the Spartan in action.

John ignored Lantern and spoke to Clark "Suffering any more seizures by any chance?" John asked "Not anymore sorry to leave you with that mess in Metropolis" Clark said sheepishly

John then took notice of the J'onn and the newcomer and said "I have learned of many heroes in this world but you two are new to me" the raven haired newcomer then spoke to John in a regal manner "I am Diana, princess of the Amazons of Themyscira, I arrived to help defend Man's World as I could not sit idly by while it was being destroyed"

John took this in & said "Understood, welcome to the fight then princess and you are?" directing his attention towards the Martian; J'onn answered "I am J'onn J'onzz the last Martian in existence & I summoned everyone here including you Spartan"

John nodded and replied "So you were the one behind my dreams and visions" J'onn nodded and said "I am sorry if I caused you any discomfort but rest assured my people before they were wiped out never used their powers on an unwilling mind"

That put John's mind at ease as he had military secrets in his mind and did not like the idea of an unknown alien pawing through his mind, "Look I'm pretty fast on the uptake but could someone please tell me what the heck is going on?" Wally asked

J'onn began to explain of how his race were once a peaceful race that were invaded by the Invaders; whilst J'onn's race were peace loving they quickly adapted to fight off the Invaders, their numbers dwindled to a small group that J'onn was a part of.

This small group became a strike force that infiltrated the Invaders' base and released a powerful nerve gas that incapacitated the Invaders but as a result J'onn was the only survivor of the mission leaving him to seal the Invaders away and watch over them.

But unfortunately whilst J'onn was in hibernation human astronauts released the Invaders from stasis.

"Hold on, if the astronauts found life on Mars why didn't they tell anyone about it?" Wally asked, Lantern said "Some pencil pusher in Washington must've flagged it as top secret" John turned his head to look at Lantern and said "You really think it that simple Marine?" Hawkgirl asked John "What do you mean by that?"

John explained "Astronauts find a hostile alien force on Mars and they didn't report it to anyone as top priority? No, most likely the invaders, who can shape shift, killed those astronauts and took their places as advance agents for a much larger attack force and to trick Earth into disarming itself"

Clark went pale and said in shock "Senator Carter" Lantern then said "My god, this is bad, real bad; we have to stop them at all costs!" "It may already be too late" J'onn said ominously as black clouds began to cover the night sky.

"What's happening now?" Wally said, J'onn replied "The invaders are nocturnal, they wish to blot out the sun to live in perpetual darkness" Wally tried make light of the situation and directed his joke towards Bruce "Friends of yours?" Bruce just glared and said "This isn't the time for jokes Flash".

"What's everyone worrying about, all we have to do is whip up another batch of that nerve gas and use it on the invaders right?" Wally said. J'onn spoke "Unfortunately, no, when we created the gas we used several rare Martian plants to make it, I brought samples with me but they were destroyed when I was captured".

Wally looked crestfallen and said "So, uh, what's plan B?" Diana put her idea forward "We'll have to destroy those factories" she said John nodded and said "I agree with the princess, if we destroy those factories we hamper the enemy's ability to move and fight and make it easier to wipe out any remaining pockets of resistance." The Amazon looked at John in surprise, as she had expected the Spartan to consider her idea foolish just because she was a woman.

Lantern then foolishly made the mistake of saying "This is not a job for amateur princesses and hotshots in fancy tin suits" "AMATEURS? TIN SUITS?" Cortana's outraged voice came from the speakers; everyone looked at the Spartan in wild surprise.

"Cortana calm down" John tried to placate the AI, "John, let me have a word with this so-called 'professional'!" Cortana gritted. Wordlessly John lifted his left hand up, palm facing up, a little blue figure of woman appeared, and the tiny woman leapt down from John's hand and grew to human size.

Clark blushed and turned away as all Cortana was wearing was practically nothing with only blue symbols of code covering her… womanly assets, Wally was immediately appreciating the sight of an almost nude woman right in front of him and pretty much drooling. Bruce, Stewart, Diana and Hawkgirl were wide-eyed while J'onn remained passive and unperturbed.

Cortana stormed up to Lantern, turned red and said in a dangerous voice "Who are you to call us amateurs? Have you ever been in a war that lasted three decades from start to finish? I didn't think so! My Spartan has been through more shit than you've been in; he's been shot, stabbed, beaten and who knows what else before I was assigned to him, so don't ever call him an amateur! Now I'm going easy on you because if it has escaped your attention Marine, Earth is being invaded by an undeniably hostile alien force & you're going to need all the help you can get; that includes me, the Chief and the princess because the enemy doesn't give a damn who you are they want you dead, so suck it up marine!".

Then Cortana turned back to John's hand, but before touching John's hand she made the 'I'm watching you' hand signal towards the Green Lantern and then was back in John's armour. Bruce was the first to find his voice "Who or what was that?" "That was Cortana, she's an AI and she's been working with me for years and she's a very capable ally to me" John answered.

"That little b-" Lantern almost said but found a magnum pistol pointed in his face, John said in a calm but dangerous voice "Please voice your opinion, let's all hear it" Clark stepped in and said "Ease up there we don't have time to argue".

John nodded and lowered the magnum; Lantern began outlaying his plan whilst keeping far away from John and his AI companion. Whilst Lantern was talking, Wally asked the Spartan "Hey I just wanna ask, do you have a spare copy of your friend Cortana?" Cortana answered for John "No, he does not Speedy, and I'm way out of your league kid" "Darn" came Wally's disappointment.

"Tactically we have multiple objectives so we'll need to split into to teams, do you have anything you want to add to the plan Spartan?" Lantern said John shook his head and replied "No, the plan's very solid Gunny, usual fire team pattern good to see your time with the Green Lanterns hasn't taken the edge off your marine training".

Lantern quirked his head to the side a bit; it had been a long time since he was called the usual nickname given to Gunnery Sergeants. "Now who's going with whom?" John asked, Wally zipped over to Diana's side, put his arm around her shoulder and said "Dibs on the Amazon!"

John then said to Wally "I don't think that's a good idea, the princess has very little experience with men and what you're doing may be offensive to her and her teachings so I suggest you keep your hands off the princess for the time being until she is comfortable around men."

Wally took heed of what John said and backed off, John then said "I'll go with J'onn as he knows the most about the Invaders" Bruce agreed and said "I'll come along as well if there is anything in those factories that has a weak spot I'll need to see it"

Diana spoke "I too shall come as well, I have very little experience with such an enemy so I'll need to know their weaknesses" Cortana made her voice known "Well I have nothing else to do so I'll stick with the Chief on this" Lantern then carefully said "You sure about this Spartan? Counting you, Batman, the princess, J'onn and the AI you're the largest group out of us all"

"Don't worry about us Gunny, just focus on the mission" John replied, Wally whined "Aw I wanted to be with the princess!" Lantern grabbed him and said sternly "C'mon speedy, we've got a job to do".

John brought out a tacpad and spoke out loud to Cortana for everyone to hear, "Cortana, realign the Clarions and Black Widows to show the nearest factories" "Realigning right now" Cortana replied.

Pressing a few buttons on the pad, a holographic image displayed itself and grew in size for everyone to see showing an image of the planet. Hawkgirl asked "How did you get these images?" Cortana replied "Let's just say me and the Chief have our own eyes in the sky for now"

John pressed a few buttons showing maps of the continents showing areas lightly guarded by the enemy "There are three factories that are vulnerable, one in Malaysia, one in Egypt and one in Metropolis we have to hit all three; Stewart, you and Flash take Malaysia; Superman, you and Hawkgirl take Metropolis while Me, J'onn, Batman and Diana take Egypt, let's move out" John said.

Lantern and Wally took their leave, heading for Malaysia, Clark and Hawkgirl flew off for Metropolis. John pressed a button on the tacpad and a Pelican airship decloaked and flew down to John's group.

Diana and Bruce looked at the vehicle in surprise and Bruce asked "What is that?" John answered "Pelican troop transport; if you want you can follow in your plane. Princess, J'onn you can come into the ship if you want".

John, Diana and J'onn flew up to the Pelican whilst Bruce seated himself in his plane. John took the pilot seat and set the co-ordinates for Egypt, Diana looked at the array of controls and exclaimed "Hera" John said "You get used it, if you'll strap yourself in please, you'll be unused to this kind of ride"

The princess took John's advice and strapped herself in as did J'onn. The Pelican and the Bat-Jet then took off in the directions of Egypt.

_Somewhere over the ocean_

Wally was racing along the water while Stewart flew alongside him, "You are no fun!" Wally said, Stewart sternly said "This isn't supposed to be fun; we've got a job to do and we're better off without distractions, understood?" Wally replied "Yeah, yeah I hear ya" but inside Wally's mind he was saying to himself "Man, I wanted to be with the princess or even that female AI, she was something else alright"

_Egypt_

Behind some ruins whilst three legged walkers roamed about, Diana and Bruce waited; Diana was getting impatient, "Hiding like cowards is not the way of a warrior!" she grumbled, Bruce calmed her "Patience Princess, when we find their weakness we'll strike" John and J'onn came back from their scout and J'onn said "I could not see any openings into the facility" Diana then said simply "Then I'll make one!" and flew into the open, J'onn was about to stop when Bruce said "Wait, let's see how she does"

Walkers fired their red energy beams at Diana; Diana either dodged or blocked them with her bracelets. Using her lasso Diana snagged a walker and began to swing the walker and cried out to one of her patron goddesses "Hera! Give me strength!" with that said Diana swung it into the wall of the factory and creating a large hole in the wall of the factory. Bruce said "Impressive" and fired his grappling hook to reach Diana.

John and the Martian flew up to where Diana was holding off the white aliens and were soon joined by Bruce. Diana blocked the laser blasts from the alien bio rifles, John fired back on the invaders with his assault rifle, this variant firing plasma rounds. Sunlight broke through the ion particle cloud, seeing this, the invaders fled deeper into the factory, Diana said to her companions "They run like cowards, what are you waiting for!" and ran off after the invaders with J'onn following close behind.

John looked at Bruce and remarked "The invaders ran away from the sunlight, they're more than nocturnal if they run away from sunlight" Bruce nodded his agreement as they both ran after Diana and the Martian.

_Metropolis_

Clark and Hawkgirl had managed to get inside the factory thanks to Clark using a similar method as Diana. As soon as they were inside Clark said "Keep your eyes open" Hawkgirl replied "I always do".

They were soon under fire from the invaders, Clark was about to tell the Thanagarian police woman to stay back when she ignored him & charged forward roaring out a war cry and used her mace to beat the proverbial crap out of the invaders. Clark ducked as one invader flew overhead and slammed in a mess into the wall.

"Whoa" "What? There's a time for words and a time for action".

_Malaysia_

Stewart and Wally had arrived near the factory, Stewart let his military training kick in and said "Alright here's the plan…" Wally, impatient, said "What plan? We go in and kick their butts, let's get this over with!" Stewart mentally said "Why do I even bother?"

Wally sped down to the factory and got the attention of the walkers; dodging their blasts Wally stepped into a slime pit and was trapped.

"Hang tight hotshot!" Stewart said as he flew over head; one walker was either about to impale Wally with one of its legs or use its laser beam to reduce Wally to ash. Stewart fired a focussed beam of green energy at the leg of the walker to sever it making it topple over.

Wally said sheepishly as he lay in the slime "Uh… I'm sort of stuck".

"I can see that, let's hope the others are having better luck than we are".

_Metropolis_

Clark and Hawkgirl moved deeper into the factory as Hawkgirl tensed up and said seriously "They're close by, I can almost smell them" Clark shifted uncomfortably and asked "Are you always this eager to fight?" to which Hawkgirl replied "My home world Thanagar is a war like world; there one must strike first or die".

Clark's reply was cut short as more invaders showed up but what surprised the Kryptonian and the Thanagarian was the invaders ran away; as soon as the invaders ran away, Clark began to wonder why when the tunnel suddenly sealed shut in front of him and Hawkgirl and shut behind them and yellow gas seeped in the tunnel.

Hawkgirl coughed and fell unconscious, Clark cried out "Hang on Hawkgirl! I'll… argh!" Beams of red energy blasted onto the Man of Steel forcing him down to the ground rendering him unconscious.

_Back in Malaysia_

"Of all the boneheaded things to, didn't you ever hear the concept of teamwork?" Stewart said to Wally as he freed him, "Can we save the motivational speeches for later?" Wally remarked. Walkers began to fire their beams; Stewart made a bubble shield to protect them, then one of the walkers fired a pod that released yellow gas, the same used on Clark and Hawkgirl.

The weakness of the power ring came into play as the gas went through the shield and Stewart slowly fell unconscious, "GL!" Wally cried; whirling his arms at super speed to create a makeshift fan to blow the gas away, Wally grabbed Stewart and sped off out of Malaysia, their mission was a failure.

_Back in Egypt_

John fired off more plasma rounds at the invaders as Bruce tossed batarangs at them whilst Diana blocked the retaliatory attacks with her bracelets. J'onn used his intangibility ability to ambush the invaders.

No matter how many invaders they defeated more took their place, herding the heroes to some unknown part of the facility. John fired off another salvo at a few invaders before having to reload; Diana stepped in to block the laser aimed at John as well as the others.

Another door slid closed, Diana said in frustration "They've cut us off again!" Bruce replied "They're trying to herd us into a location that will be an advantage to them" J'onn was standing still, his eyes glowing and said ominously "Superman and Hawkgirl are down, they've failed in their mission" Diana asked "Are you sure J'onn?"

"Yes but they are alive, no doubt the invaders will either torture or feed on them"

Bruce and Diana made disgusted faces; John recalled the sight of the Flood infection forms infesting living beings and reanimating dead bodies. More aliens came running out of a side tunnel, Bruce threw another payload of explosive batarangs while John threw a fragmentation grenade, and J'onn led the group through another series of tunnels saying that the core was this way.

Following the group John and Diana looked back and Diana said "We've lost them" J'onn ominously replied "For now". Bruce switched his weapons to a pair of knuckle dusters that released high voltage electricity and the Spartan switched to his shotgun for close quarters combat.

"We're here"

J'onn called their attention and showed them a cavernous room with a number of invaders moving about, either maintaining the facility or standing guard, there were control panels & what appeared to be a chamber holding some sort of crystal in a gestation tank.

Bruce then spoke "This must be the central core of the factory" he said to the Martian and then asked "How do we take it down?" J'onn replied "The crystal in the chamber is the Ion Matrix Crystal; it's the heart of the factory and the source of where they create the ion cloud itself. Removing it should shut down the factory and compromise it but I'll need a distraction"

Cortana replied "Don't worry, one distraction coming up" the Dark Knight and Master Chief made their move with Bruce cutting a pipeline that released black fluid onto the invaders whilst John tossed grenades both frag and plasma sending invaders flying & Diana ripped open another pipe causing gas to spill on the aliens.

J'onn used the distraction to phase to the location, John and the other two were under attack; Diana blocked the attacks with her bracelets, Bruce used his knuckle duster tazers for the kill and John fired his shotgun in rapid succession at the white skinned aliens, supporting Bruce and Diana.

J'onn reached the Ion Crystal, took out the nearby guard and removed the crystal; the factory began to rumble and malfunction but not before J'onn was shot by one of the invaders. The Martina was sent down to the ground and lost his grip on the crystal.

"J'ONN!" Diana cried out and flew over to the injured Martian and Bruce shouted ""GET HIM OUT NOW!" John and Bruce quickly moved to get the two as Diana lifted J'onn up and flew him to a nearby tunnel. Bruce quickly grabbed the crystal whilst the Spartan covered him with his assault rifle, but one of the invaders accessed the door controls and sealed the tunnel door before John and Bruce could go through.

Bruce hit the door a few times with his knuckle dusters to no avail, "We've got bigger problems now" John said as he and the Caped Crusader faced the invaders who were readying their rifles, John quickly grabbed something from his pack.

_On the other side of the door_

"BATMAN! SPARTAN!" Diana yelled pounding at the door in vain to open it when she heard laser fire,

"NO!" Diana cried out, she looked at J'onn and asked the question "Are they-?" "Yes, I am sorry but we must honour them by continuing the mission" Diana nodded sadly and asked "Where to now?" "Metropolis, Flash and Lantern will meet us there"

_Back to John and Bruce_

Bruce had braced himself for the worst as the laser rifles sounded but didn't feel any pain or instant death; he was surprised to see glowing hexagonal glass like patterns in a dome shape around himself and the Spartan and the laser rounds bouncing off it.

Bruce asked John "What is this?" John answered "Bubble shield generator, standard equipment for SPARTAN soldiers but now we have to move it won't last long" Readying his assault rifle John prepared himself to move as the bubble shield dissipated.

John fired off a salvo of plasma rounds into the aliens, going into Spartan time John rushed forward and slammed the butt of his rifle into one of the aliens reducing its head to pulp. Bruce threw a few batarangs into the aliens while keeping a hold of the crystal.

John and Bruce ran to a nearby room when J'onn's voice entered their minds "_Batman, Spartan, I am now mentally shielding you from psychic detection from the invaders, Diana, Lantern, Flash and I are heading to Metropolis to rescue Superman and Hawkgirl while you two use the crystal to take out the factory there" "Understood J'onn, out" _John mentally replied.

Bringing out a couple of sachets of C-12, John began placing them on the wall; Bruce asked "How powerful is that?" Cortana answered "I've run an analysis on the building; the material used to make it isn't designed to take a pounding so we're going to have to make a quick getaway before it collapses"

John set the timers for seven minutes, and he and Bruce began to run from the area; as soon as they were out of the building, half the building collapsed, and causing dust to rise up out of the ground.

The white aliens were now forced into the sunlight and their skin and bodies began to smoke, steam and burn, Bruce was quick to come up with a confirmable theory "The invaders have no resistance to UV radiation, that must be why they're creating the ion cloud" he said.

Cortana spoke through the MJOLNIR speakers "I ran an analysis on the devices in the factory, there seems to be another chamber that reverses the ion cloud so I would hazard a guess that placing the crystal in that chamber would stop the production of the cloud"

"We should head to Metropolis, and help the others" John said, Bruce nodded and they began to leave for their vehicles.

Cortana said to John and Bruce "Chief, the Clarions have picked up an incoming ship; it doesn't match any known profile so it's most likely the mother ship of the invaders" "Cortana, will the Dawn be ready for attack?" John asked his AI companion "It's ready Chief but we can't risk showing the Dawn to anyone just yet and the leaders of the invasion haven't shown themselves yet but when they do then the Dawn can attack"

_A few hours later: Metropolis_

John landed in a secluded area, activating his stealth module to avoid being seen; he soon found Bruce near the factory, it seemed the other six heroes had been captured. John quickly made his presence known to Bruce "Do you have the crystal ready?" he asked, Bruce nodded and laid out his plan "When J'onn gives the signal, you take out the guards while I use the crystal to reverse the ion cloud" "Understood, let's move"

Moving silently and stealthily into the complex, John and Bruce found their comrades imprisoned; hands and feet trapped in the wall. Then the alien impersonating Senator Carter stepped forward, John tuned in his audio scanners to listen to what Cater was saying.

"Earth's mightiest heroes, welcome" Senator Carter said the imprisoned Clark, J'onn, Wally, Stewart, Diana and Hawkgirl; Clark then said "So, you're finally here, the one who took Carter's place on Mars when you woke up" "Oh you know who I am? Curious, I do wonder who told you but no matter, you're all too late, this world will soon fall and all of you will feed the Imperium" replied Carter.

John and Bruce noticed the massive alien vessel above release some sort of shuttle that hovered down to where Clark & co. were trapped. The shuttle then opened and what resembled a massive violet jellyfish with black matter inside, this was the Imperium.

John, Bruce and Cortana knew they now had a chance to kill this creature right here and now, so they were going to do what they could. J'onn was brought forward and the Imperium then began to enter its tentacles into J'onn's body and proceeded to torture him.

John readied his rocket launcher and Bruce readied his explosive batarangs, "NOW!" J'onn yelled and lowered the psychic shield on Bruce and John. John fired off the two rockets while Bruce tossed his batarangs, bypassing the shield that prevented them from entering the area.

"Whoa! They're alive!" Wally said "But how?" Diana asked out loud, J'onn answered "I shielded them so they would not be found" as he continued to resist the Imperium's torture.

The Spartan said to Bruce "Get the crystal to the reverse chamber and free the others while I take care of the guards" Bruce nodded and zip lined his way up to the chamber, John took out his dual energy swords and leapt down in front of the alien guards.

Landing with a thud on the ground in front of the guards who were entering the area, the white skinned aliens stopped dead at the sight of the Master Chief, John activated the energy swords; the glowing blades sprang to life with the sound of hissing cobras facing an enemy.

Whilst John stared down the enemy Bruce made it to the chamber, tossed the guard aside and placed the crystal in the chamber; as soon as the crystal was in the liquid in the chamber turned blue and began to spread throughout the factory, the Carter doppelganger then cried out "WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?" Bruce calmly replied "Reversed the ion charge." The Imperium roared out "KILL THEM!"

The guards took this as their cue to fire upon the Spartan; John dodged what blasts he could whilst the odd bolt hit his shields and rushed the white skinned guards, swords held high. Reaching the first alien, John sliced the alien from shoulder to hip, cutting and cooking the alien's flesh, the next alien was stabbed in the head and heavily booted aside.

Two of the guards morphed their hands into blades and rushed John; they received Spartan strength roundhouse kicks to their heads, effectively killing them. Turning on the next alien John brought down both energy swords into a downward slice, the alien attempted to block the attack with its bio-rifle but didn't know the fact that the Covenant melee weapons could practically cut through any material.

Whilst John was dealing with the guards Bruce made good time in freeing Clark & co. pausing to look at John fighting the guards, many thoughts were running through the heroes minds.

Bruce watched at how the Spartan fought his opponents; every movement was too accurate and precise to be human yet too fluid and natural to be a machine "What kind of armour is that?" Bruce thought

Clark listened to John's heartbeat; there was no rush to it, all calm and perfectly steady it was as if the Spartan had done this as if it were breathing or eating "What kind of man is he?"

Stewart watched John fight the guards; "How did the military keep this Spartan a secret for so long?" Stewart thought as the Spartan beheaded two aliens in one stroke.

Wally was amazed at how fast John was moving, sure Wally was fast but in close combat situations where space was at a premium this Spartan blew Wally away "How the heck is he moving that fast?"

Hawkgirl was in awe of John's combat prowess and thought to herself "I definitely do not want to face this guy in a fight" which was saying something as she was very well trained in armed and unarmed combat.

Diana too was in awe of the Spartan and she thought to herself "Could he truly be a descendant of the warriors of Sparta?"

As soon as the heroes were freed by Bruce, Bruce tossed a batarang at the ceiling opening a large hole letting sunlight pour through onto the heroes; getting that burst of yellow sun radiation, Clark felt strong again and immediately flew up the rest of the ceiling and began to tear it apart with his strength and heat vision.

Whilst Diana didn't have heat vision like the Man of Steel she tore open the ceiling with her vast strength, Wally used high speed punches and kicks to break open holes in the ceiling whilst Hawkgirl smashed the ceiling with her mace creating holes and Stewart blasted open the ceiling with his power ring.

Whilst the heroes were doing that J'onn dragged the Imperium into the sunlight, the Imperium's flesh began to steam and burn upon contact with the sunlight, the Imperium screamed and howled in agony as the sunlight roasted its flesh J'onn taunted "You shun the light and hide underground. Does it burn your pale putrid skin?" Pus like liquid started to squirt of the Imperium's flesh, Wally remarked "Now that's a major case of sunburn".

John switched from his energy swords to his assault rifle firing upon the fleeing aliens as they scrambled to get out of the sunlight. The Imperium managed to free itself from J'onn by shocking him and got back into its shuttle leaving its guards and the Carter doppelganger to die.

Diana noticed the Imperium trying to escape and lassoed its shuttle with her golden lasso to hold it down. Diana yanked hard on her lasso while John aimed his rocket launcher at the shuttle; squeezing the trigger John fired a rocket at the shuttle doing near catastrophic damage to it then Hawkgirl dealt the deathblow, the Imperium gave one last scream as its shuttle exploded causing instant death.

The heroes then go to work rescuing the imprisoned people, breaking them free of the stasis pods; Stewart carried them out using a green energy platform construct. The mother ship sensing the death of its fellows and their leader then almost immediately started to head back up into space, this didn't sit well with Diana as the Amazon voiced her anger "Those cowards are fleeing!" John simply said "Not on my watch"

Cortana signalled the Pelican to come to them, using his anti gravity boosters to fly up to the Pelican, John landed on the open hatch, turned to the other heroes on the ground and asked "You coming to see this through?" Clark, J'onn, Hawkgirl and Diana flew up to the Pelican whilst Bruce and Wally were carried up by Stewart using his power ring.

Cortana was downloaded into the Pelican's database and once everyone was secure, closed the hatch door and flew up into the atmosphere and said to the other heroes "Brace yourselves we're going up into space" Wally asked in amazement "You can really do that?" Cortana said happily "I can do a lot of things speedy, now hold on, gun it Chief!"

John did just that and the engines were on full burn taking them up into the cold vacuum of space. It wasn't long before they had the alien mother ship in their sight, Stewart then asked "What now? Are we going to board them?" John answered "Normally yes, but not today, Cortana is the Dawn in position?" he asked "Ready when you are Chief" Cortana replied John gave a single nod.

Suddenly blasts of white hot plasma came out of nowhere, hitting the alien mother ship causing catastrophic damage, Bruce then asked in calm stoic surprise "Where did that come from?" he got his answer as the Dawn disengaged its active camouflage showing to all the heroes its full glory.

To the heroes it was a warship by any standard; heavily armed and armoured. John flew the Pelican into the hangar bay.

_In the Forward unto Dawn_

Once the Pelican was inside the hangar bay, John and the other heroes exited the ship, John transferred Cortana from the Pelican to his MJOLNIR to the Dawn's bridge system. The heroes noticed the Huragok and the sentinels moving forward to make any repairs to the Pelican; Hawkgirl asked John "What are these things?" John answered "Cortana & I will explain later."

Heading to the ship's bridge, Clark looked around, using normal and x-ray vision and asked Cortana and John "Where is everybody?" Cortana appeared on holo tank and said "No on else here Superman, just us" Hawkgirl asked in surprise "Then who's flying the ship?" Cortana answered that as well "That would be me or rather a copy of myself."

This surprised Bruce as he thought to himself "Not even HARDAC was this capable, controlling androids and computers is one thing but this is on another level entirely" John then gave an order to Cortana "Ready the Super MAC guns, two slugs each"

Clark then asked "What's a MAC gun?" Cortana replied "MAC stands for Magnetic Accelerator Cannon, a normal MAC gun can fire a six-hundred ton metric ferric-tungsten slug with a depleted uranium core at 30,000 metres per second but what we have is a Super MAC gun also called the Big Stick; the Super MAC gun can fire a three-thousand ton ferric-tungsten slug at twelve-thousand kilometres per second"

Hawkgirl, Diana, Wally and Stewart's jaws dropped as they heard this information but were distracted from their thoughts as alien fighters came from the alien mother ship to stall the Dawn, John saw this and said "Cortana, send the Longswords & Sabres on an interception course" "Already on it Chief" Cortana replied.

The Longswords and Sabres flew out of the Dawn and attacked the alien fighters, while the alien fighters outnumbered the Dawn's fighters; they were outmatched in terms of armour, weaponry and manoeuvrability.

None of the alien fighters got near the Dawn, as soon as all the alien fighters were destroyed, Cortana spoke up "We have a firing solution" John simply said "Fire!" The ship gave an almighty lurch as the four slugs were fired at the mother ship; as soon as the slugs hit the mother ship, there was a massive explosion.

"Enemy neutralised Chief" Cortana said "Good now we have work to do, I'll send a Pelican to drop you down to Earth" Stewart then said "Hold it! There are a lot of questions that need to be answered. Who are you people? Where did you get this ship? & where did you come from?" Cortana's image flashed red and she said in a cold commanding tone "Gunnery Sergeant Stewart! Do not for one second think you can demand answers onboard this ship!" Clark immediately played peacekeeper and said "I'm sorry but Lantern's right there are questions that need answering" the Spartan then said "You'll get those answers in due time Superman, for now we have work to do"

Seeing that the Spartan and the AI weren't going to relent, Clark backed down and said "Well, we would appreciate a ride back"

Taking the heroes back down to Earth, the next few days were spent mopping up any remaining resistance with the help of the Chief and Cortana, many on Earth were relieved that Earth was safe once again, but there were a few that still had their doubts, as one army general put it "We got lucky but without any means of forewarning Earth is still defenceless" Bruce had the answer.

_To be continued…_

Angry lil' elf: *pant, pant, pant* Boy that took a long time, sorry about the wait I've been pretty busy with things, so I apologise for that, anyway hoped you liked this chapter; in the next chapter we'll see John and Cortana explain to our intrepid heroes about where they came from and who they are.

And for anyone who is new to this fic, if you look on my profile I have set up a poll showing potential romantic partners for the Chief, Black Canary is in the lead with 46%, Zatanna with 15%, Huntress 12%, Fire 9%, both Vixen and Dr. Light at 6% and Catwoman at 3%.

If anyone who has read Freedom Guard's Halo/Justice League fic he has a poll showing romantic partners for the Chief with Wonder Woman being first and Supergirl being second, the others I can't remember so please don't suggest bringing Wondy and Supergirl in as romantic partner potentials as I stated in the last chapter that I'm a BMWW fan and I think that Supergirl is a bit young for the Chief, maybe I'll pair Supergirl with Flash or Nightwing when I bring him in later.

For anyone regarding Cortana getting a body and meeting other AIs and androids I am thinking about it, Cortana will obviously have an enmity with Brainiac and the Dark Heart, I can have Cortana bring Amazo to the Justice League's cause and maybe I will introduce the Metal Men.

Also I'm bringing another AI in the story that will be based on one of the heroes, maybe Bats or J'onn for their intelligence, so any thoughts or suggestions regarding that leave them in your review.

Another thing I'm doing is bringing in some OC supervillains or some lesser known ones to become enemies for the Chief, I am planning on Deathstroke being brought into the story during the Injustice for All arc and I'm planning to kill off an enemy, I'm thinking Joker but with that I'll have to have Joker almost kill Bats and unmask him and Chief will be forced to kill Joker, but hey this is fan-fiction anything's possible, so any thoughts regarding who Chief should kill off just leave a suggestion in your review.

Anyway read, review, rate & subscribe to this fic and all my others, flames not appreciated, you have been warned.

Cheers,

Angry lil' elf


	3. Chapter 3

A League of his own chapter 3

A/N; hello everyone I'm back from the dead, well not literally BACK FROM THE DEAD, I'm not a zombie (at least I don't think I am, but I have noticed a bit of an odour around me) and neither is this story, yes I do realise that it's been awhile since I've updated this story, I don't really have a good excuse but I hope this makes up for it.

In this chapter we'll see John and Cortana explain their origins to the newly formed Justice League, we'll see Diana become integrated into Man's World by getting a job and civilian identity at John's workplace, I've looked at a couple of the reviews regarding Diana and some of you are saying that you want Wonder Woman and the Chief to be together in more than a platonic sense, well I'm gonna have to deny that little fantasy of yours as I have stated before in previous chapters that I am a Batman/Wonder Woman pairing fan and I've already made my decision regarding the poll I set up for this story which is now closed.

Regarding polls, I had set up some other polls for some of my other stories like my Halo/Marvel story, my Devil May Cry/Justice League story and my recent project Final Fantasy VII/Justice League starring Vincent Valentine, I've put Wonder Woman as an option in that poll and she's in second place with first being Supergirl but that one is now closed and I've set up a new one; it's a Justice League/Assassin's Creed poll showing all the romantic potentials for Ezio to be with, Talia Al Ghul is in first place, not something I planned but I can work with it, so please have a vote on there, you can vote up to eight girls so please have a vote and leave me your opinions on what you think either via PM or in your review.

So for the pairings in this story Black Canary is in first place which was the one I originally intended, so in this chapter I'll have John go on a tour around America, if you believe the comics the current Black Canary Dinah Laurel Lance and the current Flash Wally West know each other from their predecessors Black Canary Dinah Drake Lance and Flash Barry Allen from the days of the Justice Society of America, so apparently Dinah and Wally know each other quite well so I could have Black Canary operate in Central City or maybe Gotham City East End as she has worked with Batman on occasion.

Now we begin;

An impressive advanced looking space station floated above the earth in space.

"This is an impressive installation, do your stockholders know about this Bruce?" Clark asked as he floated down to meet with the Dark Knight who was observing the earth through one of the windows.

"It's a line item, hidden in the aerospace R&D budget" Bruce replied, at that moment Wally who had just walked in with the Amazon princess decided to put in his two cents worth.

"And it comes with a fully stocked kitchen, iced mocha?" Wally offered the cold caffeinated drink to Clark who politely declined, Diana took a sip of hers and said "Mmm, they don't have these on Themyscira" she said.

"Stick around Princess, I'll show you the ropes" Wally said with a big smile, Diana gave a small smile and replied "Perhaps I will" she replied, Wally just grinned broadly, thinking that he was scoring brownie points in winning the Amazon's heart.

"An impressive installation, but what has it got to do with us?" Stewart's voice boomed out as he and Hawkgirl floated down to meet with the group.

Clark looked out the window at his adopted home-world and said "I once thought I could protect the earth myself, but I was wrong" he said. Turning to the group he continued "Working together, we saved the planet and I believe, that if we continue to work together, we could truly be a force for the ideals of peace and justice" Clark said.

"What? Like a bunch of super friends?" Wally asked humorously, Clark smiled and said "More of a Justice League" he replied and stuck out his hand, palm facing down, Wally smirked and said "Do you have any idea how corny that sounds?" he asked, turning to the rest of the heroes the scarlet speedster said "But maybe the big guy's got a point, if we stick together we could really do some good, so count me in" he said and laid his hand on top of Clark's.

Stewart said "I'm in too" "Same with me" Shayera said as they both laid their hands on top of Wally's and Clark's.

Diana looked hesitant and said "My mother may not approve but I wish to see more of Man's World" she said and laid her hand on top.

Clark looked at Bruce and asked "What about you Batman?"

Bruce just narrowed his eyes slightly and said "I'm not much of a people person, but if you need help and you _will_, call me" he said, Clark nodded and simply said "Understood."

"Hold on, where's J'onn?" Wally said, Clark looked up to one of the monitors and said "I think I know" he said and flew up to where he saw the Martian.

"J'onn, are you alright?" Clark asked he landed beside J'onn who was looking out the window to where Mars was.

"Mars is dead, so are my family and people, I am all alone" J'onn said monotonously but with an undercurrent of sadness, Clark looked at J'onn sympathetically and replied "I know the feeling" he said with much empathy.

"J'onn I know we can't replace your family but I would be honoured if you would call earth your home now" Clark said and stuck out his hand to shake, J'onn gave a smile and shook Clark's hand and flew down to where the newly formed Justice League was.

"Hey, what about the Spartan and his AI, shouldn't they get a chance at this too?" Wally said.

"I've tried tracking his ship but it's beyond anything I use to track ships" Bruce said, "I've tried looking for him too, but I guess his ship's not in our solar system right now" Stewart said.

"But surely the Spartan deserves a chance to join?" Diana asked, "We should try to look for him, but where do we start?" Shayera said.

"We may not have to, look" J'onn said looking out the window, the Justice League looked out the window; a Pelican troop transport was making its way to the Watchtower hangar bay.

Bruce opened the hangar bay doors to let the Pelican in, once it was in the hangar and the area pressurised, the hatch door opened to reveal the Spartan in his MJOLNIR.

"Hey Spartan we were just talking about you" Wally said as he and the other Leaguers entered the hangar.

"What about?" the Spartan asked neutrally.

Diana answered "We were discussing banding together and we were going to ask you to join" she said with a smile, "Interesting, Cortana and I were discussing about you as well" John said.

"What about?" Stewart asked, John replied "We've agreed to tell you all about ourselves and our origins, but not here, we're going to discuss it at our base of operations, the Dawn, so if you'll please board the Pelican and we'll be ready to leave"

The heroes boarded the Pelican; the Pelican then lifted off the ground and backed out of the hangar bay and into the vacuum of space.

After a few minutes, John said over the speakers of the Pelican _"Now approaching the Forward unto Dawn, please stand by for landing."_ The Dawn was soon uncloaked and the heroes of earth looked at in awe; the hangar bay door of the Dawn opened and the Pelican proceeded inside the Dawn.

The Pelican moved into the hangar bay of the Dawn, the hangar door closed and the chamber was re-pressurised, stepping out of the Pelican, John and the newly formed Justice League then began to follow John.

The Engineers and Sentinels then moved to make any repairs to the Pelican.

Shayera was then approached by an Engineer which made a few musical chirping sounds, the Thanagarian then asked John "Uh… Spartan what are these things?" she asked, John looked to the Engineer while replying to Shayera "They're called the Huragok or Engineers, they're living super computers that like to build and repair things, I believe it's asking if you have anything you wish to upgrade or repair" John said as he made some hand signals to the creature.

Bruce then brought out a computer tablet that he had been meaning to upgrade, "Can it upgrade this?" he asked.

John took the computer tablet from him and gave it to the Engineer, the creature observed the device before giving a chirp and it rapidly disassembled it then reassembled it in a matter of seconds, then the creature handed the device back to Bruce, Bruce took a moment to turn it on and see what had changed.

"Amazing, it's working fifteen percent above its average capacity" Bruce remarked as he looked at the computer tablet's processing speed.

"What else can these Huragok do?" Diana asked, "They can build vehicles from raw parts, like that vehicle over there" John said pointing to a Brute Chopper.

"Damn! What do ya call that thing?" Stewart asked as his inner marine was itching to try the vehicle in question to see how it handled, "It's called a Brute Chopper it was used by an alien species called the Jiralhanae or the Brutes as they were commonly called, but more on that later" John replied and lead the heroes to the bridge area.

Cortana's avatar was overlooking some information on some screens, Cortana then noticed John leading the heroes into the bridge.

"Hey Chief you've brought them here I see, hey Diana, how's the sight of Man's World for you?" Cortana asked Diana, "It has been good thus far" Diana replied politely, having conversed with the AI, Diana enjoyed her conversations with her and saw Cortana as an actual being instead of a computer program.

"Please have a seat" John said, pressing a few buttons and some seats appeared out of the floor, "You'll have to excuse us, the Dawn isn't built for creature comforts" John said, "We kinda figured that" Clark said as he sat down on a chair.

"I assume you brought us here to explain your back story?" Bruce asked, Cortana replied "That would be correct but before we tell you all our story, we must warn you there will be things that would be under serious questioning about the moral and ethical details, so what we are about to tell you must NOT leave this ship" she said with all playfulness forgotten and an utterly serious expression on her face.

"Why? It's not like anyone is going to believe us easily" Wally said, "Even so, we have learned that there are individuals in this universe that would dearly like to get their hands on such information and put it to use against us and others, such as Lex Luthor for example" John said, Clark and Bruce nodded their agreement as they had both experienced the machinations of the criminal businessman.

"Wait you said 'this universe' what do you mean by that?" Shayera asked, Cortana answered "Well put simply, the Spartan and I are not from your universe, you could say that we're from an alternate universe" she said.

"No way, I mean aliens like what we've seen recently are possible but alternate universes? No way" Wally said scoffingly "It's not unreasonable, a friend of mine went through something like this" Clark said, Bruce then said "You're referring to parallel universes, right now we're talking alternate universes"

"It's true, even the Guardians of Oa have information on parallel and alternate universes, hell even that maniac Sinestro got his power ring from an anti-matter universe" Stewart said.

Cortana said solemnly "The universe is filled with many wonders and mysteries, some could be of great good to all life but others should be left well alone for good reason" she said.

"That's true, I've seen things in this universe that scare, even me" Clark said.

"Now it's time to reveal ourselves, Chief do the honours won't you?" Cortana said, John put his hands to his helmet and with a snap and a hiss of compressed air, the helmet came off revealing his face to the Justice League.

The men of the Justice League saw an instant warrior and born leader, while the women saw things a little differently.

Shayera saw a veteran soldier sworn to his duty to defend humanity and despite the calm look on his face, Shayera had no trouble imagining what his face would look like when angry.

Diana saw a warrior's face, she could truly believe that he was a descendant of the warriors of Sparta.

"My name is Master Chief Petty Officer John-117 of the United Nations Space Command Navy, Special Warfare Spartan Company" John said, "I should've known that there was something different about you the night you attended the ball in Gotham" Bruce said, his eyes narrowed.

"Special is a relative term Mr Wayne" John replied, Bruce just narrowed his eyes further at how John knew his identity, "Mr Wayne? Are you-?" Wally started but Bruce shot him a cold glare which Wally immediately backed down and dropped the subject.

'Wait do you know all our identities?" Stewart asked in part shock and part anger, "Just a precaution, but ask yourselves, we've had the info for months now, what have we done with it? Have we exposed you to the government? To the media?" John asked, Stewart thought about it and replied "Well no"

"Than what does that say about our intentions?" John asked, Wally replied "You come in peace?"

"Exactly, Cortana and I had run across a black ops government group called Cadmus that has information on every known hero, criminal and metahuman on Earth but more on that later" John said cutting off questioning.

"Now to explain our origin, we have a little show & tell" Cortana said and brought up a holo video.

"The year is 2558 and there are no superheroes, costumed criminals, gods or magic, there are aliens but we'll get to that soon enough" Cortana said to the captive audience.

"After WW2 the UN managed to convince all the governments to hand over control of all their armies and band all the governments into a cohesive government to form the United Earth Government" John said, "Damn that must've been something really big to do, I don't think the UN of this universe could convince all the governments to hand over control of their armies" Stewart said.

"Why do they not? Surely the good that could come of it would be useful to all of Man's World" Diana said "Well put simply Diana, there are some bigoted politicians that would prefer to keep control over their countries armies" Cortana replied, "That's incredibly foolish, there are people who could benefit from other governments' help" Diana said with a frown on her face.

"Well most governments don't like other governments interfering in their countries and business and they have to enter talks before any aid can be given" Cortana replied "Why would they sit around and talk? When people could benefit from the help instead of sitting and talking" Diana said "Because they don't just sit around and talk, every politician carries the weight of their nation on their shoulders and should they fail their job, they fail their country, politics has and always will be a dangerous game, it's probably something that you as royalty will face one day when you ascend your people's throne, it's not perfect" Cortana explained, "But on with the story" she added.

"UEG scientists then developed an engine known as the slipspace engine to travel to unknown parts of the galaxy and colonise other planets" Cortana explained, "How many planets did your reality's people manage to colonise?" J'onn asked, "Before the war with the Covenant the UEG controlled over eight-hundred habitable worlds" Cortana replied, this bit of info floored the heroes.

"What's the Covenant?" Shayera asked, "We'll get to that bit later" Cortana said, the Thanagarian warrior woman huffed but was patient enough to wait.

"But soon, humanity encountered old problems from the cold war era, a man by the name Koslovic who was essentially a neo-communist amassed followers and tried to start so called 'worker crusades' with a Maoist or Stalinist undertone among worlds where supplies were manufactured and soon another problem came from the Jovian moons where the Friedian Government adopted a fascist method of dealing with the Koslovics and soon wanted to be independent from the UEG" Cortana said.

"So you had to deal with Neo-commies and neo-Nazis on two fronts? Damn I thought our reality had it tough" Stewart remarked, Cortana nodded and proceeded talking "Soon, what was known as the Rainforest Wars as an area of Earth was a prime target of resources soon destroyed it leaving barely any vegetation and animal life in its wake" she said, images of the destroyed Rainforests were shown, the images of dead animals, humans and destroyed plant life sickened the heroes to their core.

"Great Hera! It's madness what was wrought by men's greed" Diana exclaimed, "I know it wasn't pretty, soon the UEG adopted a WW2 tactic known as the Blitzkrieg or lightning war on the Koslovics and the Friedians with massive propaganda advertisements to boost the manpower of the UNSC army which was a success" Cortana said.

"But even after the successful campaign against the Koslovics and the Friedians, another threat rose up known as the Insurrectionists or nicknamed the Innies" Cortana added.

"They were basically Outter Rim colonists who were sick of the often draconian interference of the government, what first started out as peace marches and protests soon escalated into violent attacks on government buildings and so began the Insurrectionist War which is where John came in. John, do you want to explain?" Cortana asked, John nodded and stood up.

"Keep in mind what I'm about to tell you will be… unpleasant, immoral and ethically questionable" John warned.

"When the war with the Koslovics and the Friedians started, it started going the worse for the UNSC and so a drastic method was adopted, essentially a super soldier program known as Orion or nicknamed the SPARTAN I project where sixty soldiers volunteered to be enhanced, giving them far greater strength and intelligence among other enhancements to create the first super soldiers, the first operation that deployed these soldiers was a great success with only one loss of life to the Spartan I's but soon afterwards as their age set in, they encountered debilitations and were medically discharged or sent back into the regular military" John explained, the heroes nodded their understanding.

"When the Insurrectionist war started, a woman by the name Dr Catherine Halsey who would become a great influence on me headed a new project called the Spartan II Program, the project looked for those of great genetic traits that set them apart from regular people which is where the Spartan I's came in as they had children and there were supposedly three-hundred living descendants of the Spartan I's but due to budget constraints only seventy-five were found which is where I come in" John said.

J'onn asked "What set you apart from other people?"

"At six years old I was a foot taller than other children, had superior reflexes, more physically proportioned and I had a drive to win" John replied.

"Not to mention that you were incredibly lucky" Cortana mentioned, "How so?" Diana asked.

"When Dr Halsey personally came to inspect John, she tossed an old coin and asked him to predict what side it would come up, John caught it in mid-air and correctly predicted its outcome" Cortana replied.

"No way! He really did that? Can you show us?" Wally asked excitedly "Anybody got a coin on them?" he asked.

Stewart replied "Nope sorry"

Shayera "Don't look at me"

Clark "Sorry, no pockets"

Diana "Unfortunately no"

Bruce just glared at everyone looking at him and said that he didn't have one.

"We can use mine" John said bringing out his dog tags with an old battered coin attached to it.

"Is that?" Cortana asked, "The same" John replied.

"Pass it here, I wanna see how lucky you are" Wally said. John passed the coin over and Wally flipped it, caught it and hid it in his hand.

"Heads" John said.

Wally looked at the coin "He got it right! I'll flip it again"

Flip!

"Heads"

Wally looked at the coin and heads it was.

"I'll move faster this time" Wally said.

Flip!

"Tails"

Wally looked and tails it was "Damn he got it right again! Say John you interested in paying Vegas a visit?" Wally asked, "Sorry I don't gamble" John said.

Diana thought to herself that John must've been truly blessed by the gods to be that lucky.

"Also on an interesting note, there was a rumour of how John got to be so lucky" Cortana said with mischief in her eyes.

"What was the rumour?" Clark asked, "Well it's more like an office joke when it came to John; the joke was that John gave Lady Luck herself such a grand time in the bedroom that she blessed him with a great deal of luck in hopes of convincing him to come back for another round with her, HA!" Cortana laughed.

Nearly everyone burst out laughing, even Bruce and J'onn cracked a smile at that joke, John just shook his head depressively.

"Oh boy, I gotta remember that one!" Stewart chuckled wiping his eyes in mirth.

"Back to the story, afterwards I was taken to the planet Reach to begin my training under Chief Petty Officer Terrence Mendez" John started to explain.

"Wait, what do you mean taken? Didn't your family have something to say about this?" Shayera asked, "I don't understand the question" John replied, Bruce replied "She means that you must have been given the information of what you were to do when you became older"

"I wasn't asked, I was covertly kidnapped and replaced with a flash clone and taken to Reach to begin my training" John stated.

The heroes eyes went wide at that statement, Wally stuttered out a question "You're kidding right?"

Wally then looked at J'onn and asked "J'onn he is kidding right?"

J'onn's eyes glowed a bit as he scanned John's mind for any lies and even he sounded shocked as he replied "No, no he isn't" he said.

Wally shouted "But that's insane! They were just children! You were children back then!" he cried.

"What about the clones?" Shayera asked her voice full of anger and shock, "The flash clones would only live for a certain time before expiring of physical ailments so in the eyes of our biological family we were dead" John replied.

Stewart bellowed out his anger "And you just accepted this?! They just stole your life!" he shouted, "Believe when I tell you, not all of us accepted it, one of my fellow Spartans, Kelly-087 managed to escape her captors and find her way home only to find the clone living her life, it was then she realised our civilian lives were over and being a Spartan was all we had" John said.

"But to use children…" Diana said with shock in her voice.

Hawkgirl made her opinion known "This is barbaric, even on Thanagar our children are given a chance till their late teens before being given a chance to go into the military" she said.

"Please before you make judgements let me finish" John said before continuing.

"Once we were taken to Reach, we were under the command of Chief Petty Officer Terrence Mendez" an image of hard, stern man with a bald head and moustache wearing an army uniform barking out orders to young children.

"No offence John but this Mendez makes my drill sergeant look like a rookie" Stewart said.

"Mendez's training methods he made us go through would have seemed barbaric, inhumane and cruel to many but to us, he was our father figure and he taught me that you don't win until your team wins, something that I've remembered & held to all my life" John said.

"Once we reached the age of fourteen we were to undergo an advanced version of the augmentation procedures that were performed on the Spartan I's, the following video will be… graphic" John warned.

The video and audio footage of the young Spartans undergoing the augmentation procedures sickened everyone in the room to their very core, Stewart had a look of great rage and disgust on his face, Clark could barely watch the video, Bruce was trying very hard to remain calm and stoic, Diana covered her mouth with her hands to keep herself from shouting in horror, Shayera was fighting to keep the contents of her stomach inside herself, J'onn was wide-eyed and Wally couldn't hold it in much longer and sped off to be sick, Cortana made sure to mark the path to the bathroom for Wally.

"How many of you survived the procedures?" J'onn asked, "Ten died from the pain, others were severely crippled but the rest of us counting thirty-six were enhanced to superhuman condition but had to be put under observation and micro gravity to recuperate" John replied.

"What sort of enhancements did you receive?" Bruce asked, John replied "We could lift ten times our own weight which was increased due our bones being made near indestructible, we could run at sixty miles per hour though Kelly could run at eighty as she was the fastest of us all, we had increased vision and had a form of night vision, we had reflexes that was timed at half a millisecond and we had an enhanced healing factor and a form of telepathy to sense changes in the battle field."

John said as videos showing the Spartans in combat were shown.

"Keep in mind these are abilities without the armour, so the armour enhances John's natural abilities" Cortana said with a smirk, Stewart said "Wait a minute, are you saying the armour makes you stronger?!" he asked in shock, Cortana gave a smirk and said "Yep, also the armour developed for the Spartans would have killed or crippled a normal human, so the Spartans were the only ones capable of withstanding the stresses of the armour and so it was named the MJOLNIR series powered assault armour" she said, Diana spoke "MJOLNIR? As the Norse god of thunder Thor's hammer?" she asked "Right in one Diana" Cortana replied, John proceeded with the story.

"But soon after, we encountered a greater threat and it was then a fight for survival" John said.

Videos of destroyed ships and some audio was heard _"Your destruction is the will of the gods, and we are their instrument"_

Cortana took over from John "Attacks like these were becoming all to frequent from these attackers, many times the UNSC tried to establish negotiations but the Covenant had made it clear that they were going to do everything to wipe us out" she said.

Soon a brief explanation of the Covenant races were shown, everything from the cowardly Unggoy or Grunts to the bloodthirsty Jiralhanae or the Brutes as they were termed were shown.

"The Unggoy or the Grunts were essentially cannon fodder for the Covenant armies and were cowardly creatures but were vicious in large numbers, the Kig-Yar or the Jackals were the scouts and snipers, the Sangheilians or the Elites formed the role of officers and elite guards of the Shanshyyum or the Prophets who were the political and spiritual leaders of the Covenant, the Mgeloko or Hunters were living tanks that filled the roles of heavy support and finally we have the Jiralhanae or the Brutes who formed the shock troops and secret police and were known to be vicious berserkers when angered" Cortana explained as the video footage of the races in question were shown.

"Wasn't there any attempt for a ceasefire?" Clark asked, John replied "Unfortunately no, the Covenant made it clear that they were going to wipe us all out, there was a plan to covertly kidnap one of the high ranking Prophets in order to force a surrender but it would've been futile as it would've made the Covenant even more desperate to wipe us out" John said.

Soon video footage of the Spartans facing the Covenant armies was shown, the sheer brutality the Spartans showed the Covenant races was awe inspiring as the Covenant races either fled in terror or tried to overwhelm the Spartans.

"Why did the Covenant want to destroy you all so badly?" Shayera asked.

"It more or less had to do with their religion" Cortana said before continuing "The Covenant worshipped a race called the Forerunners who came before all other races and were highly evolved beings with great technology"

"When the Prophets found out that humanity were the successors of the Forerunners, the Prophets covered up the truth and ordered the genocide of humanity" Cortana added, "That's totally barbaric!" Shayera exclaimed.

"There were many artefacts that the Forerunners left behind, one such artefact was the weapon known as Halo" John said as video footage of a giant ring was shown, "The Covenant leaders though that when they fired the Halo rings, it would make them ascend to godhood what they called the Great Journey but the rings had a more serious darker purpose than that" Cortana said.

"The Halo rings were formed when a parasitic menace known as the Flood came to the galaxy; the Flood were parasitic creatures that fed on sentient life, accumulating biomass and an intelligence known as the Gravemind to consume all sentient life in the galaxy" Cortana said.

"So the Halo rings were formed to eliminate the parasites?" Bruce asked "Not quite, the Halo rings were created to destroy all sentient life in a certain radius, thus eliminating the Flood's food source" Cortana said much to the shock of the heroes.

"That's insane!" Stewart said, "For the Forerunners it was the only option but they had machines that would reseed the galaxy with life and the Forerunners departed from the galaxy leaving humanity to be their successors" Cortana said.

"Why would these Forerunners choose humanity as their successors?" Diana asked, "From what I learned from a recent trip to a Forerunner facility, it was to atone for their mistake as many millennia ago humanity once had an empire that was almost as great as the Forerunners and humanity was the first to encounter the Flood and understand what it was and they attacked many settlements not out of greed but out of desperation, the Forerunners misunderstood humanity's intention, stripped humanity of their technology, humanity soon devolved after that in doing so the Forerunners doomed themselves" Cortana said.

"For you see, the Flood consumes not only biomass, but the memories and intelligence of their victims and form the Gravemind and at first the Forerunners assumed that the Flood was nothing more than a minor pest but as soon as they realised the level of the threat it was too late" she added.

"After activating the Halo rings, the Forerunners departed from the galaxy leaving humanity to be their successors, when the Prophets found out this little fact, they ordered humanity's destruction' John said, the heroes nodded their understanding of this.

"Soon after the discovery of the Halo rings, the Flood was released and with that came a mess of problems, Chief and I managed to avert the activation of the Halo ring by setting off an explosion that destroyed it. Soon after the Covenant discovered Earth but didn't expect it to be populated so the UNSC fought back" Cortana said as video footage of John fighting the Covenant ground forces in New Mombasa.

"We managed to hijack a lift on the Prophet of Regret's cruiser to find another Halo ring, after killing the Prophet of Regret, we fell into a nearby lake and there Cortana and I met the Gravemind" John said as footage of the Gravemind was shown, the heroes shuddered at the sight of the Gravemind.

"_I am the monument to all your sins"_

"The Gravemind forced me, Cortana & the Elite warrior Arbiter Thel Vaddam to ally together to stop the firing of the Halo" John said "After successfully stopping the Halo firing, I was forced to leave Cortana behind and I hitched a ride to Earth where I crash-landed in Africa where I learned that the UNSC had allied with the Elites and certain factions that had broken away from the Covenant" he added.

"Wait you allied with the Elites? Why would you do that after all they had done?" Diana asked, Cortana answered "It was for the basic need for survival, before the Elites had broken away, many of them questioned as to why the Prophets did not offer humanity to join the Covenant, as the Elites were a martial culture and any opponent they considered to be worthy they would integrate them into their ranks, when the Prophets began to favour the Brutes and ordered the genocide of the Elites coupled with the Elites learning the true purpose of the Halo rings and how humanity were to be the successors of their gods, the Elites broke away from the Covenant causing a civil war in the Covenant" Cortana explained.

Diana nodded her understanding.

"When I was left behind, I was practically tortured by Gravemind forcing me into Rampancy" Cortana said, "What's rampancy?" Wally asked, "Well in our reality there are two types of AI; Dumb AI that can only function within their parameters and Smart AI that have the thought and neural patterns of a human & can act beyond their control parameters, with me so far?" Cortana said, the heroes nodded showing they understood.

"Now an AI can only last so long, especially Smart AIs, our average life expectancy is seven years, if we go further than that we begin to process more information and use more computing power, essentially we think ourselves to death" Cortana said "Then how are you still here?" Bruce asked the obvious question.

Cortana replied "If an AI successfully overcomes rampancy they achieve what is known as the holy grail of AIs, metastability, so in a sense we actually think and act like humans, I was forced into rampancy, though it was more like a depressive rampancy and John came back for me at great risk to his own life and snapped me out of it."

"Soon the Gravemind sent cruisers infested with Flood parasites and started to takeover Africa, so we had no choice but to glass half of Africa with the help of the Covenant Separatists" Cortana continued, "What does 'glass' mean?" Stewart asked.

John answered "It was a common tactic by the Covenant to aerially bombard planets with enormous barrages of superheated plasma, turning nearly anything and everything into molten ash and glass" he said showing video footage of Covenant Cruisers firing upon UNSC worlds.

"Good god!" Stewart exclaimed as he saw the video, "Such destruction!" Diana exclaimed.

"Back to the story, Chief here soon learned that after the Arbiter helped prevent the second Halo from firing, it had sent a signal to Africa where a hidden Forerunner facility would open a gateway to a place known as the Ark, a place beyond the rim of the galaxy where all the known Halos could be fired all at once" Cortana said.

"So the Covenant decided to go through and fire all the Halos?" Bruce asked, "Right in one, shame I can't give you a cigar as a gift" Cortana said humorously Bruce arched an eyebrow at that while the rest of the heroes gave a chuckle.

"Then John, the UNSC and the Separatists went through after the Covenant Loyalists to stop them but the Flood decided to go through to escape destruction, John, the Arbiter and myself entered an uneasy truce with the Flood to stop the Prophet of Truth from activating the Halos, we managed to kill him but after we stopped the Halos from firing the Flood then turned on us, forcing us to activate an unfinished Halo to destroy the Ark and leave the Flood trapped" Cortana explained.

"As soon as we were about to leave the Ark, the gateway malfunctioned cutting the Dawn in half, leaving us stranded in space, so Chief decided to put himself in cryostasis until we were rescued, after a short time we were found by a Forerunner AI who upgraded us and gave us a new ship to boot, so that's basically our story in a nutshell" Cortana finishing John's and her story.

The heroes sat in silence, each going through their own train of thoughts and opinions about John and Cortana's story.

Stewart thoughts **"Damn what John went through makes my marine days and Lantern days look like a picnic, if it weren't for his killing code, he'd make a damn fine Lantern, and he's got my respect."**

Diana thoughts **"Such pain and horror this man suffered, I don't think any of my sisters or even my mother could have withstood such a war, he truly is a Spartan through and through"**

Wally's thoughts **"Wow, after everything John went through, he deserves to be called a hero"**

Shayera's thoughts **"So much destruction and warfare in this man's life, I just hope Hro won't do anything foolish to this world"**

Bruce's thoughts **"After so much pain and suffering, how could John go on even after facing so much war?"**

Clark's thoughts **"John more than deserves to be called a hero for all his service to his government"**

J'onn's thoughts **"Even after facing so much pain and suffering, he found the will to continue on"**

Wally was the first to say something "Y'know, if it came down to it, I would like no better to have my back than you John" he said "Thanks" John said simply.

Clark then said "Couldn't have said it better myself, Flash, we also have a proposition for you John" he said, John looked at Clark and asked "What's that?"

"We've formed a society to fight threats that no single hero can face alone, we call ourselves the Justice League and we'd like you to join" Clark said.

John raised an eyebrow and said "'Justice League'? That's an odd name to be honest" he said, Wally chuckled and said "Yeah, that's what I thought too, but it's a great idea to band together and make the world a better safer place, so how about it?" he asked.

John thought about it and replied "I'm not sure my methods would agree with your methods of dealing with crime" he said honestly.

Clark replied "I know your methods of fighting crime won't entirely agree with our methods of dealing with crime, but you don't kill for the sake of killing or bloodlust, you only kill when necessary and you regret taking human lives, if you didn't then I would worry" he said.

"Yeah John, it sounds like a good idea, we do have ammunition variants that stun and capture instead of kill, so it's a good idea to join, it might make you more appealable to the public" Cortana said, encouraging her friend.

"Alright, I'm in" John said after a moment's thought "But I'll only serve part time, as I'll mainly be concerned with me and Cortana finding a way back to our reality" he added, Wally smiled and replied "No problem, Bats is serving part time as well, and I'm sure we can get STAR Labs to help you find a way home" he said.

Clark then said "But first we need to let the world assembly know that we've formed the Justice League, instead of think it's just a group of heroes coming and going" he said, John gave a slight grimace, something that all the heroes picked up on, Diana asked "You think that it's a bad idea?" she asked.

Cortana answered before John could get a word in "Actually during the war with the Covenant, the Spartan program was revealed to the public to boost morale but the more questionable details of it were left out, John hated having to attend numerous press conferences and parades, as nearly all the Spartans were introverts and private people, you guys are lucky to see his face and learn his name" she said.

Shayera said to John "Don't worry I don't like the media and press conferences either, but it's necessary to have a good public image, trust me on this John" she said reassuringly, John nodded and put his helmet back and said "When do we start?" he asked.

"But first we need to sort out what to call Diana" Cortana spoke up, "yeah what do we call you? We can't keep using your real name all the time" Wally said, Diana looked thoughtful and said "Well my mother always called her little wonder when I was a child" she said while blushing a little at the thought of revealing something so personal to strangers.

"More like wonder woman nowadays if you ask me" Cortana said "Hey we can call you that! Wonder Woman, it's got a ring to it" she said excitedly, "Wonder Woman, I like it, I'll keep it" Diana said with a smile, "Fitting" Bruce simply said.

A few days later…

"Ladies and gentlemen of the World Assembly, please be seated" Clark's voice rang our across the room, American and foreign senators, media and various other people sat down in their chairs.

"A few days ago, we faced an international crisis, in which we were manipulated into disarming ourselves so that an extra-terrestrial threat could invade, I admit to feeling like a fool for unwittingly playing a part in it" Clark began as media people began to record the Man of Steel's words while focussing on the heroes and John on the stage.

"C'mon John, smile for the cameras" Cortana said to John inside the MJOLNIR helmet as Clark talked to the crowd, "Very funny" John replied "You remember what Johnson to you that day when we were going to be awarded for our services?" Cortana asked, John replied "'Folks need heroes, to give them hope'"

"Exactly, so smile you're in centre stage" Cortana said.

"We managed to save the earth but it was only with the help of this man" Clark said gesturing to J'onn who gave a nod of his head to the crowd.

"In order to protect the earth from external threat and internal threats, we have formed the Justice League in order protect and serve mankind, the Justice League comprises of Batman from Gotham City" Bruce acknowledged the crowd with his gaze, "The Flash from Central City" Clark said, "Hey everybody, glad to be here!" Wally said cheerfully which earned him some chuckles from the crowd.

"Green Lantern" Stewart gave a curt nod.

"Hawkgirl" Shayera nodded while nervously holding her mace by the strap.

"J'onn J'onzz, the last surviving Martian from Mars" J'onn gave a bow.

"Wonder Woman" Diana held her right hand in a fist over her heart in a traditional warrior's salute.

"And the Spartan from New York" John stood to attention and saluted.

Clark then said "We have banded together in order to better serve mankind and to do what no single hero can do alone, so if you have any questions, now is the time to ask them" he said.

"I have one for the Spartan" a man with a bald head and a thin moustache wearing an army general's uniform, John stepped forward and saluted which the general returned.

"Sir what is your question?" John asked, "My name is General Wade Eiling, my question is this; who are you, soldier?" Eiling asked.

"I am Master Chief Petty Officer Spartan-117 of the United Nations Space Command Navy Special Warfare Spartan Company sir!" John barked with military precision, Eiling's face took on a quizzical look and he replied "I've never heard of this UNSC or Spartan Company before, where do you come from?" he asked.

John replied "Believe it or not, I come from an alternate reality, there it is the year 2558 and there are no superheroes or supervillains" he said, this information rocked the room and set off some people asking questions, Eiling said "Impossible" he scoffed.

"I am not lying when I tell you this sir, I have nothing to gain from it, there in my reality it is the year 2558 & I serve the UNSC as a Spartan II commando" John said.

A news reporter then asked "You said that you're a Spartan II commando, are you a super-soldier?"

"Essentially yes I am an enhanced soldier of the UNSC but I cannot reveal details of the program I was part of" John said, much to the ire of many government and military officials who eagerly wanted to find out the details of the Spartan II Program.

Another news reporter stood up, this news reporter part of a news program that didn't particularly like John and his methods "Spartan, we've seen in your first appearance in Metropolis and in New York when facing the Kasnian terrorists that you favour harsh methods of dealing with criminals, can you explain your reasons as to why you favour such methods?" the reporter asked.

Stewart moved forward and said to John "Let me answer this one Spartan"

"Folks, when I first saw the news report of the Spartan in action in Metropolis I first thought him to be a cold blooded killer, but I remembered that I was once in the marines where I served in some bloody conflicts where I saw things that no-one should ever see. When the Spartan showed his past to me, it reminded me of my marine days and when we asked that while he serves with the League, that he'll only kill when necessary, the Spartan agreed with us on that, that proves to me that the Spartan is a good man and that he is a soldier doing his duty to defend his fellow man from any and all threats and should there ever come a time when I'm in trouble, I would gladly have the Spartan be there to watch my back and bail me out" Stewart said.

Bruce surprised everyone by stepping up to the podium to speak for John "I'd just like to say this; a soldier is given clearance to kill in the defence of others, the Spartan is a soldier doing his duty while I do not agree with his methods of dealing with criminals, he has shown the capacity for mercy and only resorts to killing should his opponents give him no choice, this shows he knows the value of mercy and compassion and for this I respect him" Bruce said everyone paying attention to his words as soon as he was finished speaking there was polite applause.

John stepped and said "Thank you Batman and Green Lantern for your words and I promise to only resort to killing should there be no there alternative, but to all the criminals out there watching this, do not seek to test me as I will not hesitate to bring you down should you force my hand and if you force me to resort to killing I will do it and I keep my promises, you have my oath as a soldier on that" John said.

After that more questions followed such as military and government officials asking John if he would consider trading UNSC technology, John replied that he would talk with the League to decide what technologies would be safe but said with finality that he would not trade weapons or armour technology much to the ire of many government and military officials who wanted to get their hands on John's tech.

After the media circus, the heroes then returned to the Watchtower, where John and Cortana were given a tour and discussed with Bruce what technology could put on the Watchtower such as sentinels and Huragok to do maintenance and repairs.

Then came the problem of where Diana was going to stay;

"Diana, just a question, do you have anywhere to stay?" Cortana asked, Diana looked surprised and she replied "I had not thought about that, I suppose the Watchtower facilities would suffice" she said.

Wally spoke up "You could always stay at my place, I've got plenty of room at my place" he offered with a waggle of his eyebrows, Diana's face took on a look of surprise and confusion "Flash" Bruce said warningly "What? I was just offering" Wally said defensively.

"I have a better idea, we can set you up a civilian identity in New York and get you a job at Mendez-Halsey Inc. as John's secretary" Cortana said "What does a secretary do?" Diana asked, "Basically, fill out forms, keep appointments and schedules and generally assist the CEOs in any way they can" Cortana replied, "Sounds easy enough, I accept" Diana said.

"We're gonna have to come up with a suitable last name for you though we can't use Diana of Themyscira or everyone will figure out you're Wonder Woman, any ideas anyone?" Cortana asked the members of the Justice League.

Bruce suggested "Will Prince do?" he asked, Diana looked at Bruce and replied "Prince, I like it, I'll take it" she said with a smile.

"Very well Diana Prince it is, I'll set it up" Cortana said and began to form the necessary identity forms and lay down a false trail so no-one would look too closely at Diana's past.

A few days later…

Diana turned up to the Mendez-Halsey Inc. building in the CBD of New York, wearing clothing that would be expected of a CEO's secretary, to get such clothing Cortana made John go shopping for the clothes and gave him Diana's measurements, he was also to buy underthings such as bras, panties & even some conservative but fetching swimwear.

John reluctantly did as he was told and bought the requested items, many women looked at John in surprise and just smiled at that, any man who would willing do such things was certainly a keeper, some of the female shopkeepers offered to model the clothing in question, John politely declined, paid for the clothing and left.

Diana turned up to the building, entered the building and showed her identification to the security guards and directed to the elevators, where she pressed for the top floor where she would be working.

Reaching the top floor, Diana found John waiting for her, John was wearing his usual business suit, appropriate of a CEO of a million dollar company.

"Hello Diana, glad you could make it, welcome to your first day in Mendez-Halsey Incorporated" John said, Diana gave her greetings, John directed Diana to her desk where she would be working and gave her a crash course in being a secretary.

John then had to attend to some business with the board of directors, leaving Diana to her work; Diana found the work easy enough but a bit boring and tedious and wondered at how ordinary people dealt with such boredom.

Some problems arose when some of the male staff took the opportunity to try their luck with Diana, luckily Diana had been warned about the attention she would receive due to her natural beauty by Cortana and was instructed in how to politely turn away unwanted suitors, those that didn't let up would have their genitals gripped painfully by Diana's superhuman strength and given a clear warning not to try again.

Thankfully the male staff only politely asked Diana if she was single and interested in dating, Diana politely answered that she was too busy with her work to be interested in dating.

Later on the Watchtower…

The alarm went off in the Watchtower, Bruce, Diana, John and Cortana hurried to the Monitor Room, to find a call from Clark.

"Superman, what's going on?" Diana asked the image of Clark's face on the monitor.

"_We just faced some alien robot enforcers called the Manhunters who were looking for GL. Flash, Hawkgirl, J'onn and myself fought them until GL turned up and surrendered himself to them"_ Clark explained, "He turned himself in? Why would he do that?" Cortana asked _"Apparently, John destroyed an entire planet, he's being held on galactic trial right now"_ Clark said.

"That's impossible, Stewart wouldn't destroy an entire planet" Diana argued, _"I know, that's what I thought too, but Stewart's not doing a thing to defend himself"_ Clark said with worry etched on his face "That idiot!" Bruce growled "What are you planning on doing to get Stewart out of it?" he then asked.

Clark replied _"We're having Flash stall the trial any way he can, while Hawkgirl, J'onn and I try to find witnesses and evidence to clear GL's name"_ he said, Bruce arched an eyebrow and said "You're having Flash stall a trial?" he asked, Clark's face took on a look of embarrassment and said _"It was the only option we had at the time, and Flash volunteered, so we couldn't stop him if we wanted to"_

John said "Alright, let us know if you clear Stewart's name, Watchtower out" he said cutting off the link.

"Well looks like that's it, all we have to do is wait now" Cortana said, John replied "I'm sure they'll do fine in clearing Stewart's name" he said, "I do not understand why Stewart would turn himself in if he was not guilty" Diana said, Bruce replied "Stewart thinks that people with powers should be held accountable for their actions" he said, Diana nodded, understanding the situation more clearly.

"Say John what would you say to taking a tour across the world? Get you out there and see other what other heroes there are" Cortana asked, "Never thought about it, why?" John replied.

"Well for one thing, we can't have you cooped up all the time in New York and the Watchtower, it's not healthy plus it'll give you a chance to see how other heroes of the world operate" Cortana reasoned "I was thinking maybe you could visit Gotham first and see how our Caped Crusader here deals with things on his home turf" she added.

John thought about it and said "If you think it's a good idea, then I'll go along with it, Diana what do you think of this 'world tour'?" he asked, Diana thought about it and replied "I think it will be a good cultural experience, I've never seen the rest of Man's World, so it will be interesting to see how other heroes fight criminals" she said.

"Well Batman, guess we'll be visiting your turf and don't worry, we won't interfere with your mission unless it truly needs our intervention" Cortana said reassuringly when Bruce narrowed his eyes.

Later in Gotham City…

John wearing his MJOLNIR exited the Warthog having followed Bruce's directions to his base of operations known as the Batcave, Diana flew in after John and landed beside John.

"Interesting choice of headquarters" Diana remarked as she looked around the area of the Batcave.

Bruce made his way down from the Batcomputer to the hangar where John and Diana were "Welcome to the Batcave, it's not very often I have visitors" Bruce said neutrally, "I can imagine" John said as he looked around the cave.

"So where would you like to start in Gotham?" Bruce asked.

"First I'd like to know your rogues gallery, in case any of them decide to come to New York" John said, no sense beating about the bush.

"Alright, we'll go over them on the computer, I keep records of every major criminal that Gotham has faced" Bruce leading John and Diana to the giant computer.

John then started going through all the information of every supercriminal in Gotham, making sure to record the information to go over later.

Diana shuddered at the picture of the Joker and the details of his file and at first why the law enforcement of Gotham simply did not find him guilty and execute him for his crimes, Bruce and John explained that Joker basically had a dream team of lawyers so he would always plead insanity.

More and more pictures of Bruce's rogues gallery were shown each with info on their past and basic details of their skill sets, John had Cortana record all the info, just in case one of Bruce's foes ever decided to try their luck in New York.

So the rest of the morning was spent looking over the details of Bruce's enemies.

_To be continued…_


	4. Chapter 4

A League of his own Chapter 4

A/N: hello everyone, sorry for taking so long I don't have a good excuse but I hope this makes up for it, in this chapter we'll have John and Diana see how Bruce operates in Gotham and we'll some interaction between John and local Gotham sorceress Zatanna and this will be in all reality a short chapter, maybe 3,000-5,000 words in length as I'm trying not to rip off others and I'm trying to update some of my other stories as fast as possible, so please bear with me.

There are those of you out there that are saying that I'm too slow with updates and that I'm putting out new stories each day, my reason is that no-one bothers to leave a review anymore! They just like and follow my stories but hardly any reviews, I long for the day when all of you actually bother to leave a review and not some crappy one telling me to update as fast as possible, so please the next time you read an update for one of my stories, leave a review, please leave one and not some crappy one!

Okay rant over, I'm also working on a couple of new stories, one already in the works and one being written in progress, one is a Halo-Fable crossover starring Noble Six/Spartan B312 and Femme Sparrow/Hero of Bowerstone, I've named it Fable 2: Spartans Don't Die, basically during the last part of Halo: Reach where Six is fighting against Covenant ground forces, he sees a cave opening and makes a break for it and escapes only to be transported to Albion where he meets Sparrow who is starting her quest for revenge against Lucien (the main bad guy in Fable 2) and there's a bit of romance between Sparrow and Six whom I've named Hal.  
>My other story in progress is a SkyrimJustice League crossover where my Redguard Dragonborn named Draven and his wife Aela the Huntress try to free Durnehviir from Soul Cairn and end up taking themselves, Odahviing and Durnehviir to the DCAU universe around a couple of months before the White Martian invasion, in regards to that story I have set up a poll showing romantic potentials for Dragonborn and Aela to be with; it's all the usual suspects such as Diana/Wonder Woman, Supergirl, Zatanna etc. so please have a vote on there, you can vote up to eleven girls on the poll, it might be a harem pairing or a multi pairing. To be honest I was kinda hoping for Zatanna to be in first place as she needs a bit of love, but the poll speaks for itself with Wonder Woman in front so I'll abide by everyone's decision on the poll.

Anyway that's all for now, now on with the show;

Now we begin:

It was 6:38 at night and John and Diana had to endure a massive media procession of how Halsey-Mendez Inc., was collaborating with Wayne-Tech on a new venture involving Halsey-Mendez pharmaceuticals and Wayne-Tech robotics.

Diana was told of Bruce's public persona of being a foppish dim-witted shallow playboy billionaire and that he might purposely hit on Diana to further his public image, Diana was immensely confused at why Bruce would do this, Cortana had explained it all to her, how the need to protect one's identity as a costumed hero in order to protect loved ones.

Cortana also cheekily gave Diana some advice on how to flirt with men and make them want more and leave them hanging; Diana had asked why she should do that to Bruce, a man she was coming to respect for his ways and methods, Cortana smiled slyly and said that Diana would soon figure it out.

After the media procession, Bruce then offered to take John to a friend of his who knew the magical community, while John knew Diana had knowledge of magic, it was fairly limited to Greek mythology and John needed to know the whole range of magic and its criminal elements.

Driving his custom car to Gotham downtown and pulling up in front of a theatre, John and Diana stepped out and saw on the billboards and posters _Zatanna, the Mistress of Magic_.

"Who is Zatanna?" Diana asked out loud as she looked at the poster of the attractive brunette woman wearing a stage magician outfit with fishnet stockings and a top hat.

"Zatanna was a childhood friend of Bruce's when he trained under her father Giovanni Zatara, a stage magician and illusionist, but Zatanna herself has actual magical powers that she discovered a couple of years ago" John said explaining as the two entered the theatre and showed their tickets to the usher, who ushered them upstairs to the top box where Bruce was waiting.

Bruce was sitting in his chair waiting for John and Diana and stood up when they entered.

"John, Princess Diana, you made good time getting here" Bruce said shaking John's hand and gently kissing the back of Diana's hand earning a small blush and an even smaller shy smile from her.

John sat down in his chair as did Diana; a waiter came around and served them champagne and a selection of finger food, the lights in the theatre dimmed and the stage lit up and in a flash of white light and blue smoke a beautiful woman appeared out of thin air.

John immediately took note of her; she was very attractive, for some strange reason John thought that the posters and photos didn't do her appearance any justice, she had shoulder length hair that was black as a raven's wing, sky blue eyes that somehow glowed slightly, an attractive well-formed face, narrow nose, full lips, a curvy body frame and the fishnet stockings really showed off her legs. This was Zatanna Zatara.

After the stage show, Bruce sent word to Zatanna that he wanted to talk to her in private, when she asked what about, she received "You'll see" Bruce said.

_In Zatanna's dressing room_

Zatanna was dressed in a white dressing gown with her fishnet stockings and high heels still on, sitting on a chair drinking a leisurely cup of coffee, just how she liked; cream and three sugars, looking into her crystal ball watching a magical recording of her stage show, taking note of any mistakes she may have made.

A polite rap on her dressing room door called Zatanna's attention, leaving her crystal ball, Zatanna opened the door to see her childhood friend and big long-time crush Bruce Wayne along with two people she had seen in the papers; CEO of Halsey-Mendez Inc. John Mendez and his secretary Diana Prince.

John Mendez looked seriously handsome, rugged, well-kept and his eyes intrigued Zatanna as they seemed to hold a deep sad story and he was very tall and well-built, sure Bruce was tall but this man seemed to tower over all.

Diana Prince had the looks and body many supermodels would die to have, her dark hair done up in a neat bun, her lips full and charming and her blue eyes held pure innocence something that a child would have.

"Well Bruce, you do know that you turning up here is going to have a lot of people talking" Zatanna said as she looked at Bruce.

"I know that Zee, I came here to discuss some business with you as Batman" Bruce said, his voice the deep harsh baritone, he usually used when in costume.

Zatanna's eyes bugged out of her head when Bruce said that and she almost screeched "Bruce! You just spouted off you alter ego in front of these two!" she said in shock.

"It's alright Zee, these two already know of my activities and you've seen them in the papers in New York and what they've done in costume" Bruce said.

Zatanna looked at John and Diana; now that she thought about it, Diana looked awfully similar to the hero Wonder Woman, if she was Wonder Woman, then John Mendez must be the Spartan, she thought.

"Come in quickly" Zatanna said ushering the three into her dressing room, checking there was no-one else outside in the hallway before closing it and locking it behind her then casting a silencing spell so that anyone outside the dressing room would hear nothing going on in the room.

"Alright Bruce start talking, are these two really Wonder Woman and the Spartan?" Zatanna asked.

"I am Wonder Woman, you need not worry for your friend's safety sister" Diana said, Zatanna raised an eyebrow at that and she replied "No offence, but I'm an only child, I never had a sister, not that I didn't want one" she said.

Diana mentally slapped herself, she had been so used to calling all her fellow Amazons 'sister' as a way of greeting them, saying goodbye or request, Diana had called all the women of Man's World sister when she talked with them. John and Cortana had been reminding Diana that the women of Man's World weren't used to such language used from her.

Diana apologised to Zatanna who took it graciously.

"So Bruce, what brings the Spartan and Wonder Woman to Gotham City, I thought they were based in New York" Zatanna said.

Bruce replied "John is still new to this universe and like me, he needs to know about all the criminal aspects of the world, including magic" he said.

"Well Bruce the thing about that is, I'm still new to magic, I've only been at it for a couple of years, wouldn't your friend Jason Blood or Doctor Fate been a better choice?" Zatanna asked.

"I know Doctor Fate, but I haven't worked with him long enough to trust him and Jason would be a good source of info on magic, but he's incredibly difficult to track down, even for me" Bruce said.

"Jason Blood? As in the knight who betrayed Camelot and was bound to the demon Etrigan" Diana said in surprise as she looked at Bruce and Zatanna.

"Yeah, how do you know?" Zatanna asked.

"The legend of how Camelot fell is known, even to my people, we have an extensive library on every legend in the world, a gift from Athena when Themyscira was built" Diana said.

"I'll have to visit sometime" Zatanna remarked, "It would be an honour to have you visit my home Zatanna" Diana replied with a genuine smile.

John then cut in "We're getting a little off track here, I was going to ask you to be my informant on the magical community, would you do me the honour?" John asked as he looked at the Mistress of Magic, for some strange reason unknown to the Spartan, Zatanna blushed as he looked at her.

"Well I would have to scan you first to see what kind of person you are, I can't be an informant for someone I hardly know" Zatanna said apologetically.

John frowned slightly and he asked "You want to read my mind?" he asked cautiously.

"Don't worry I won't go too far into your mind, I'll just scan your surface thoughts to get a glimpse of your personality, I promise" Zatanna said, John looked thoughtful internally debating inside his mind, after a few seconds he nodded at Zatanna giving her the green light.

Zatanna then placed her hands on John's temple, closed her eyes and chanted some strange arcane words; John felt something brush his mind, he tensed up but relaxed as he realised that Zatanna wasn't going to force her way in.

A few seconds and Zatanna then released John's head, she took a step back and said "You've gone through so much but you've managed to pull through and still be the same good person, how'd you do it?" Zatanna asked as she looked at John with a bit of awe.

"I'm a Spartan ma'am, my duty is clear to me, I guess that's what kept me going" John said shrugging his shoulders.

"Well, after seeing what you've gone through, I'll gladly help you out Mr Mendez, but do keep in mind I'm still new to magic and I'm still trying to establish myself in the magical community" Zatanna said, John nodded and replied "Understood ma'am" he said.

Zatanna gave John a friendly swat on the arm and she said in mock indignation "Don't call me ma'am! I'm not that old" she said, John was about to apologise but saw the smirk on Zatanna's face and gave a small smile in humour.

Bruce, John and Diana then gave their goodbyes to Zatanna who thanked them for dropping by and said to John that she would drop into New York if she had any info of criminal activity in the magical community and she said it with a warm smile that made John feel a little self-conscious.

_The Batcave._

John was in full MJOLNIR armour and Diana in her armour, both of them waiting for Bruce and his apprentices to get ready.

Diana couldn't help but shiver as she looked into the dark gloom of the cave, John noticed and asked "You alright?"

Diana looked at John and replied "Yes I am fine. But this cave feels strange, its dark and foreboding" she said as she held her arms with her hands.

John shrugged and said "It is dark but it may be one reason why Batman chose this to be his headquarters" he said.

Soon Bruce turned up in his suit along with his apprentices Robin AKA Tim Drake and Batgirl AKA Barbara Gordon.

"Glad to see you're ready, ready to go?" John asked as he brought out of his Warthog a sniper rifle, a battle rifle, a magnum pistol and a complement of rounds both lethal and non-lethal variety.

"We are, Spartan, but I hope you're not going to use lethal measures against my rogues gallery" Bruce said as he eyed the three weapons John holstered to his armour.

"Only if the situation calls for it Batman shall I intervene and if it comes to it, I'll use lethal force" John replied as he and Diana got in the Warthog and started the engine, giving it a rev.

Bruce raised an eyebrow slightly but didn't argue as he knew John exhausted all options before using lethal force and if the foolish continued to fight, John would kill them.

Bruce and Tim got into the Batmobile while Barbara got on her custom motorcycle and soon they started their engines and left the Cave.

_Gotham City._

Commissioner Gordon was standing on the rooftop with Renee Montoya and Harvey Bullock by the Bat signal.

Gordon then saw a familiar shape materialise out of the darkness, Harvey couldn't help himself but say out loud "Great, here comes the Bat-freak in his pyjamas" he said sourly, Montoya elbowed Harvey in the stomach to shut him up.

Soon the sound of small rocket jets sounded out, Gordon, Montoya and Bullock looked around to see two figures approaching the building at a reasonable speed.

When they came nearer, the three police officers were surprised; it was the Spartan and Wonder Woman of New York.

"What are the Spartan and Wonder Woman doing in Gotham?" Montoya asked, Bullock shrugged and said "Not sure, but I don't think they're here for a holiday" he said.

Soon the Spartan landed with a small thud on the rooftop and Wonder Woman landed lightly on her boots.

Bullock couldn't help but wolf whistle as he looked at Wonder Woman and remarked "Now there's a looker right there, wonder if she's single?" Bullock wondered, luckily for him Diana didn't hear that remark but Montoya was standing beside him and elbowed him harder, winding the overweight cop slightly.

"Batman, may I ask why the Spartan and Wonder Woman are in Gotham? I thought they were based in New York" Gordon said, John answered before Batman could

"Just taking in the sights and seeing how Batman operates in Gotham, Wonder Woman and myself won't interfere in Batman's mission unless it truly calls for it, sir" John said, Bullock spoke up "And if it does, would you kill the bozos round here?" Bullock asked.

The Spartan looked at Bullock and replied "I exhaust every option before I use lethal force and since I'm in Batman's territory I won't" he said.

Bullock followed up with another question "And if the crooks around here came to your city, what would you do then?" he asked, John replied "I would give them a chance to surrender but if they didn't stop, I would beat them within an inch of their lives and if they continued to persist, then I would shoot them three times; twice in the heart and once in the head" John said.

Batman raised an eyebrow, Montoya and Diana gasped slightly, Gordon was wide eyed, Bullock just smirked and said "Good answer, I think I might like this guy already" he said with a smirk.

Gordon then spoke up "We're getting off topic here, we have a hostage situation Batman; Two-face is holding an old man and a baby hostage in the East end, he's already made ransom note to the families of the old man and the baby, we have SWAT forces on stand-by but Two-face has a good handful of goons with him, all armed with military grade weapons" Gordon said.

Bruce replied "Keep Dent distracted and try to negotiate with him, I'll sneak around the back and try to get to the hostages before Dent can harm them, the Spartan and Wonder Woman will be on standby in case anything gets out of hand" he said drawing up a battle-plan.

Bruce then fired off a grapple line and swung off into the darkness, John and Diana then flew after him following him at a respectable distance.

_Gotham's East end; a little run down house._

Diana scrunched up her face in mild disgust as she looked at the appalling conditions the poor and less privileged of Gotham's citizenry lived in.

"How can these people live in such appalling conditions?" she asked out loud as she and John flew overhead.

"Some of these people have no choice but to live in these conditions, and there are very few of the privileged in society willing to take on the responsibility to help the poor and needy rise above such conditions" John said.

"What is wrong with such people? Why do they not help when others could benefit from such help?" Diana asked.

"Don't judge them harshly, they're only human after all and humanity is its own worst enemy but there are people like Bruce who give the poor and the needy employment, housing, medical access and a fair wage to live on" John said, Diana nodded showing her understanding.

Reaching the dilapidated house that Two-face was holding the hostages, John and Diana landed on the rooftop where Bruce was waiting.

"Has Two-face made any moves yet Batman?" John asked as he used his MJOLNIR's inbuilt binoculars to look into the building and saw armed goons holding military grade weapons.

"Not yet, but I don't want to take chances, I'll sneak in through the air ducts and drop in on them, you two keep watch out here and only intervene if things get out of hand, Robin and Batgirl will take out Dent's goons" Bruce said as he made ready to head off to the house, Robin and Batgirl went to distract Two-face's henchman.

As the Bat-clan went off to do their duty of protecting Gotham, Diana remarked "Batman has a very well organised way of doing things" she said, John nodded and observed the Bat-clan at work through the scope of his rifle.

Bruce snuck in through the air ducts, hardly making a sound as he moved through the vents like a wraith.

Barbara and Tim then made their move, engaging Two-face's henchmen, gun shots rang out into the night as Batgirl and Robin fought Two-face's henchmen.

Harvey Dent AKA Two-face snarled out his frustration as he heard his hired thugs fought Batman's apprentices.

"You idiots! Take them down! I'll deal with the Bat-freak" Dent said in his harsh grating voice.

Dent then moved into another room where the hostages were and shouted out "Come out Batman! I know you're there! Come out now or I kill the hostages!" Dent shouted, to emphasise his threat he pointed his .45 pistol at the head of the old man being held hostage, the old man looked at the barrel of the gun with great fear in his eyes but resigned himself to his fate.

Bruce was right up above Dent and dropped down on the former district attorney, giving him a couple of swift hard punches to the head, Dent dropped like a sack of potatoes, the old man being held hostage breathed a shaky sigh of relief and thanked Batman profusely as the dark knight freed him from his bonds.

Bruce then freed the baby being held in the crib, the infant whimpered and snuggled into Bruce's arms as he held him closely.

Dent quickly woke up and brought his guns to bear on the Batman's back, as Dent was about to pull the trigger, an unseen force grabbed Dent's arm and twisted it, making the former DA yelp in pain and out of the darkness, materialised a being that made Dent afraid, very afraid; the Spartan.

Bruce noticed John holding Two-face's arm in a hold that made him envious and Bruce spoke to him "Spartan, I thought I said you would be on standby" he growled as he held the already asleep infant in his arms.

John replied without even looking at Bruce or breaking his grip on Dent's arm "Didn't wanna take chances, and besides you have your hands full with the hostages" John said as Dent struggled in his superhuman grip.

"Let go of me, you freak!" Dent snarled his face contorted in anger, the burned and scarred half even more twisted than ever in his rage.

John silently brought up his magnum pistol and held the barrel to Dent's head, Dent's good eye widened slightly but he smirked cruelly and said "Go ahead tin-man, shoot me, you haven't got the stomach to do it" he said confidently.

Bruce watched silently, going through plans in his head if John did happen to carry live rounds in his pistol, John didn't answer the Gotham criminal and shot him in the head; Dent's head snapped back under the force of the round, Bruce shouted "NO!"

"Relax, I only used an anaesthetic round on him, look" John said, motioning to the patch of liquid on Dent's forehead and Bruce felt relieved that John didn't use any lethal measures while on his turf.

"Let's get the hostages out of here, I think your protégés have cleaned up outside" John said as he put Dent over his shoulder and helped the old man up off the ground who said his thanks and walked behind John and Bruce.

The press were waiting outside, prepping their cameras ready to take pictures of the Spartan; as soon as John and Bruce were outside, reporters came flooding in to ask questions, with a whoosh of his cape Bruce, deposited the baby into the arms of a nearby police officer and melted into the shadows leaving John alone with the media.

Reporters were asking questions on what John was doing in Gotham, John merely replied "Just taking in the sights and seeing how Batman operates in Gotham, I won't intervene in his mission unless it truly calls for me to intervene" he said as he helped the old man who had been held hostage into the waiting arms of a paramedic and put some cuffs onto Two-face's wrists and shoved the criminal into a police van.

With a flare of his jet boosters, John flew up into the air to meet up with Bruce, Diana and the rest of the Bat-clan.

_To be continued…_


	5. Chapter 5

A League of his own Chapter 5

The story so far; so far John and Diana have begun to see how Batman operates in Gotham and have dealt with Two-face and met the Mistress of Magic and in this chapter they may meet one of Gotham's own heroes, the Black Canary!

Now we begin;

John flew through the air with the help of his boosters before landing on the rooftop where Bruce and his protégés, and Diana were waiting for him.

"Have fun with the media?" Bruce asked sardonically as he knew full well that John hated dealing with the media.

John just turned his helmet in Bruce's direction then just shook his head and spoke

"Where to next, Detective?" John asked.

"To meet one of Gotham's new protectors, she's new to the game but she has potential to be good at what she does" Bruce replied as he fired off a grappling line to a nearby building and swung to the next building with Batgirl and Robin following behind him and John and Diana flew above them.

"So what's this girl's name?" John asked over the comm link.

"_Her name's Dinah Lance, but she goes by Black Canary when on duty"_ Bruce replied.

"Cortana, bring up any files regarding Dinah Lance AKA Black Canary" John said to Cortana.

"_Sure thing, John. Scanning and… here we are!"_ Cortana said as she brought up the images of a beautiful blonde haired woman wearing nylon stockings, black high heel boots, black bustier, a choker and a blue-black jacket, John couldn't help but be intrigued by the image of this woman.

"_Name: Dinah Laurel Lance. Age: 25 years old. Dinah is the daughter of the original Black Canary Dinah Drake Lance who married a police detective and served alongside the Justice Society of America during World War 2"_ Cortana said running through the information.

"Interesting, anything else?" John asked.

"_Another interesting fact is that the current Black Canary, Dinah Laurel Lance is a metahuman; her metahuman ability is to produce high powered sonic waves from her mouth which is dubbed her Canary Cry. Dinah's Canary Cry has the ability to shred metal and crack concrete, so you don't wanna be on the receiving end of it!"_ Cortana said with a warning tone.

"What are her skills?" John asked.

"_Her skills are: master level of martial arts, acrobatics and gymnastics, detective skills and motorcycle riding and repair skills" _Cortana replied.

John gave an 'hmm' before focussing on flying to the destination that Bruce was leading them all.

_Gotham Narrows_

Dinah Laurel Lance AKA Black Canary was standing atop of a building observing the streets below; she had gotten a tip that Penguin was selling some illegal high grade weapons and while Dinah was sure of her abilities, she had decided to call in her reluctant and grouchy ally Batman for the support as this was HIS city after all. But would it kill him to let some other heroes help out in Gotham?

"Canary" A voice said from behind Dinah, which made her jump at the sound of the voice and she spun round ready to punch whoever said her hero name behind her.

Once she saw that it was only Batman and his protégés, Dinah breathed a sigh of relief and said

"Bats! Geez, do you have to scare the pants off me every time we meet?" she asked accusingly while glaring at him, Bruce remained stoic and replied

"Sorry but there's been a change in plans, we have some outside help coming in" he said.

"Really? Like who?" Dinah asked. She got her answer when she saw tow figures that she had seen on the TV when the newly formed Justice League had appeared in front of the UN; Wonder Woman and the Spartan.

"Whoa…" was all Dinah could say when she the Spartan; his armour looked as though it was made for one thing only: war. And his weapons made every modern firearm and explosive look like cheap plastic toys instead of weapons.

"So the Spartan and Wonder Woman have come to this corner of the world" Dinah remarked as she looked the two heroes up and down.

"Indeed we have, Sister, we have decided to see what the rest of Man's World has to offer" Diana replied.

"Well, let me be the first to say, welcome to Gotham, home of thugs, lunatics and guys who like to dress up as flying rodents" Dinah said in her best tour guide voice.

Cortana started to laugh inside John's helmet

"_Aaahahahahaaaa… I like this girl already John!" _she said laughing, John had a slight smirk on his face beneath his helmet at Black Canary's joke.

"So you're the Spartan huh? What brings you to Gotham?" Dinah asked as she strode up to John until she was standing before him, her head barely reaching his chest.

"Just taking in the sights ma'am, seeing how Batman does things in his city" John replied evenly.

"Don't call me ma'am! I'm only twenty-five years old, hardly a ma'am!" Dinah shot back, John was about to apologise when he saw the smirk on the beautiful blonde's expression and he smiled slightly and shrugged his shoulders which made Dinah smirk a little more.

"What's the situation down there?" Bruce asked as he stood on the ledge overlooking the warehouse.

"So far the buyers haven't turned up but the weapons Penguin is selling are there and rumour has it that Cobblepot has hired some special muscle in case we decided to intervene" Dinah replied.

"Who's the hired muscle?" John asked.

"The usual; Bane, Killer Croc and the last one is some kind of special ex-spec-ops soldier, I didn't catch his name but he's supposed to be really good" Dinah replied.

"Here comes Cobblepot now" Bruce said as he noticed a limousine pull up in front of the warehouse and stepping out from the car was the familiar portly figure dressed in his usual tuxedo and top hat, Oswald Cobblepot AKA the Penguin.

…

Penguin had been nervous, tonight's deal was going to bring him a lot of business and money and raise his standing in the criminal underworld. But with Batman on the prowl looking for evidence that could put him away, Penguin was very nervous that any evidence linking him to this deal would put him away for a long time.

Oswald then took out his mobile phone and dialled in a number

"This is Penguin, the deal is ready to go down, are you in position?" Oswald asked.

"_As always Mr Cobblepot, and I've noticed some heroes nearby ready to stop the deal"_ a voice said on the other end of the line.

"Well you'd better make sure that they don't ruin this deal for me! I'm paying you a lot of money to safeguard this operation!" Oswald spat.

"_Don't you worry, Mr Cobblepot, I am after all the best at what I do"_ the voice said confidently in a sinister manner.

"You'd better be! Or I'll see you go to jail with me!" Oswald snarled and he hung up and entered the warehouse.

…

"Cobblepot's moving, let's move!" Bruce ordered as he, Batgirl and Robin fired their grappling lines onto the roof of the warehouse leaving John, Diana and Dinah on the roof.

"I really need to get me one of those grappling lines" Dinah muttered enviously.

"Do you need a lift?" John asked neutrally.

"Sure if you think it would help" Dinah replied, John picked her up gently and using his repulsors they lifted themselves up in the air and landed on the warehouse roof where John gently set Dinah onto her feet.

"Thanks for that, Spartan, it's not every day I get to experience flying like that" Dinah said with some humour.

"Glad I could help" John replied neutrally.

"Quiet, Cobblepot's about to make the deal" Bruce said as he peered through a glass pane of the roof.

Soon they saw the Penguin waddle his way into the warehouse and walked to the top of a stage and stood at a podium and spoke into the microphone to his potential buyers.

"Ladies and Gentlemen! If you would all be seated" Oswald said and everybody sat in their chairs.

"For the first item we are auctioning off, tonight, straight from STAR Labs we have a high power molecular slicer; this item can project a beam that slices apart molecules, shall we start the bidding off at ten thousand?" Oswald said.

"They stole that from STAR Labs? How did they manage to get a hold of something like that?" Barbara asked as she watched through the window.

"You won't live long enough to find out" a voice said from behind them, they whirled around to see an odd looking figure standing there, watching them.

He wore dark grey and orange accented armour and his helmet only had one visible eyepiece on the left side and he was armed with a variety of weaponry; a sword, a staff, handguns and an assault rifle were all on his person.

"Slade!" Nightwing spat as he recognised the enhanced ex spec-ops soldier turned assassin for hire who had terrorised him and the Titans.

"Hello, Robin, or is it Nightwing now?" Slade asked tauntingly as he brought out his staff.

"What are you doing here, Deathstroke?" Bruce growled as he brought out some batarangs, ready to throw them at the world's greatest assassin.

"Simple, Cobblepot paid me to safeguard his auction and to take out any capes who wanted to interrupt it" Slade replied as he levelled his staff at them all and the tip of the staff began to glow red.

John levelled his assault rifle at the mercenary; the UNSC had a very low opinion of mercenaries or those who sold their services as guns for hire and John wasn't going to hold back against this one as he had read all of Deathstroke's history and knew that the ex-spec-ops soldier was enhanced beyond peak human physical condition and knew how to use such strength.

Slade turned his only eye to look at John and spoke

"So you're the Spartan, huh? Quite impressive armour you've got on, I wonder if it'll stand up to my weapons" he said as he aimed his staff at the Spartan II commando.

John didn't bother replying, he just squeezed the trigger of his weapon and fired a volley of armour piercing rounds at Slade. Slade saw the attack coming and dodged the incoming bullets and fired his staff which fired off a beam of energy.

John took the brunt of the blast to shield everyone from it and he took a quick look at his shield meter; the blast from Slade's staff had taken his shields down a quarter, obviously that staff was made to reduce normal humans and armour to cinders.

"_John, whatever that staff blasted you with, it took out a quarter of the shields!"_ Cortana's voice said frantically.

"I know! I'll have to be careful about this one" John replied inside the helmet.

"Still standing? Impressive, not even Cyborg could've stood up to that" Slade said aloud.

"You're going down you sunnuvabitch!" Nightwing said as he charged forward with his escrima sticks, Slade was ready for him and began to engage the first boy wonder in combat using his staff to block all of his attacks before retaliating with a spin kick that left Dick sprawling on the ground.

Bruce threw a trio of batarangs at Slade who batted them away with his staff, Tim launched a flying kick against Slade who grabbed his foot and flung him away over the edge of the building.

"Robin!" Barbara shouted and she leapt off the building and managed to catch Tim and fired her grappling line and snagged the edge of the building and swung them to safety.

"Now you've made me mad" John said and he charged forward with his combat knives at the ready.

"Think you can take me?" Slade taunted.

"Shut up and fight" John replied as he prepared to fight his opponent.

John held the knife in his left in reverse grip for stabbing and held the knife in his right normally for slashing; John slashed at Slade who blocked the slash and slammed his staff down onto his opponent who blocked it and booted him in the chest.

"URGH!" Slade growled as he felt his chest take damage; his armour was designed to take such impacts but that didn't mean it didn't hurt any less, luckily his healing factor helped ease the pain.

John followed up his attack with a left-right combo and scored some shallow cuts on Slade's armour.

"Good knives, must be laser sharpened right?" Slade asked as he moved back and attacked again.

"You've got a good eye" John replied as he blocked the incoming attacks and slashed at Slade once more.

"Argh!" Slade growled as John's knife cut a neat line in his body armour and he slammed his staff into John's middle; John took the brunt of the blow and stepped back slightly and readied himself once more.

"HYAH!" Diana yelled and she launched herself at Slade; Slade merely dodged the brute force attacks and flipped over and fired a point blank blast of energy from his staff at her.

"URGH!" Diana cried as she was blasted over the edge of the building.

"Diana!" Bruce yelled and jumped over the ledge and grabbed her and fired off a grappling line onto the edge of another building and pulled her to safety.

"No finesse. This is a waste of my talents" Slade said coldly. John frowned and launched himself at the mercenary.

_To be continued…_

A/N: I know, I know, a cliff-hanger but honestly I was running out of ideas and patience for this chapter and I know many of you want me to update this as quickly as possible so a short chapter is all I've got for now, hopefully the next chapter will be longer than this one.

Hopefully the fight between Deathstroke and the Bat Clan, Master Chief and Wonder Woman was good enough, Slade has proven to be able to beat everyone in the Bat Clan but they've only ever taken him on one at a time. And for John to fight Deathstroke would be a real challenge to any writer as they are both super-soldiers with years of combat experience and make use of conventional and unconventional combat tactics and weaponry.

Now just to let everyone know, I've recently written and posted a new story, it's a Skyrim crossover (I know, I'm hopelessly addicted to that game) and it's between Smallville where it is set after season 10 and in the first year of Clark's career as Superman. I was intending to write it like Ranschaj's Skyrim/DCAU story which he gave me permission to but I decided against it and wrote it like my other Skyrim fics.

The basic premise is that a young man goes to Smallville and rents the Talon apartment and strange things begin to happen in Smallville, more so than usual for the meteor capital of the USA and there's been strange reports of fires and livestock attacks and Clark and the Justice League learn that a dragon-god has returned to the world of mortals and now they must find the one known as the Dragonborn to stop him.

I've got a few good story arcs for this story such as the Dragonborn, Green Arrow and Superman teaming up with Batman and Barbara Gordon as she's called in the Smallville season 11 comic Nightwing to take down Mr freeze and find the killer of Batman's parents.

I've titled the story Smallville: Dragonborn as I have no imagination and that's about all I have to say in this, so please check out some of my Skyrim stories as they do need a bit of love as I've put all my heart into them and I wish they would get more reviews.

Peace out!  
>Angry lil' elf.<p> 


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